Google Knol Review - Has Wikipedia seen its last day?

July 23, 2008

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Google Knol just launched. If you have not been keeping up with this, Knol is Google’s user generated content competitor to Wikipedia. Here is a quote I pulled from technologyreview explaining it in more detail:

“a new experimental website that puts information online in a way that encourages authorial attribution. Unlike articles for the popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia, which anyone is free to revise, Knol articles will have individual authors, whose pictures and credentials will be prominently displayed alongside their work.”

The main question I have with regards to Knol is the effect it will have on SERP domination . How well will these articles rank? I have a gut feeling it will rank well, really well.

According to some, the article will rank well organically, if it has many positive votes. The scale is on 1-5 and can be seen below:

fireshot-capture-_68-increase-conversions-_-68-surefire-tips-to-increase-your-bottom-line-a-knol-by-brian-chappell-knol_google_com_k_brian-chappell_increase-conversions-68.png

If you are looking to Knol as a source of link manipulation then think again, links are NoFollowed and will not be passing any juice.

fireshot-capture-_69-google-street-view-and-home-office-addresses-a-knol-by-todd-mintz-knol_google_com_k_todd-mintz_google-street-view-and-home-office_3bz32ep1d7pno_2_.png

Not only is this going to be a great way to rank for competitive keyphrases organically, you can really create a presence in your niche via mind share tactics such as quality commenting.

fireshot-capture-_72-google-street-view-and-home-office-addresses-a-knol-by-todd-mintz-knol_google_com_k_todd-mintz_google-street-view-and-home-office_3bz32ep1d7pno_2_.png

Why is Google doing all this you might ask.

Google will start to mine this data, thats a given. The question is what are they going to do once they attribute you, the author, as an authoritative source on a particular subject matter.

This is where Friendrank might come into play.

I blogged about Friendrank a couple weeks ago you can read more here: FriendRank explanation

The possibilities are endless right now as to what else Google has up their sleeves with all this.

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Posted by Brian Chappell | Filed Under Social Media News, Blog 

Comments

One Response to “Google Knol Review - Has Wikipedia seen its last day?”

  1. Sid Software on July 31st, 2008 9:45 am

    I think it’s too soon to start talking about a Wiki slayer. People have been saying that Wiki is gona get replaced for a while. One of Wiki’s strong points is that it is a labour of love. Gnol is monetized through Google Adsense. On the other hand Gnol is looking a bit more organized to me.

    It will probably boil down to whether Google gives Knol a Serp boost or not.

    Sid Software’s last blog post..Audio editors sound editing software

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