Knol First Impression
I finally got a chance to look at Google’s most recent inductee to the beta community, Knol.
Knol is aimed at letting people express what they know about a topic, and choosing if their articles can be edited by others. A good way to think of this project is as a bridge between Wikipedia, a Blog and… AdSense. That’s right AdSense has been added to this even in its infancy.
Most of the articles you will read about Knol will discuss how Google is trying to crush sites like Wikipedia. What I think is odd is that not many people are talking about the Google Adwords possibilities.
I agree that at first glance there are a lot of similarities between Knol and Wikipedia, but once you dive into it, you will see that they geared towards different types of people.
People will post on Knol over Wikipedia for the following reasons:
- Authors of the Knol can take credit for their writing, where as sites like Wikipedia, the topic is written by many unidentified people
- Authors are able to provide credentials allowing them to gain credibility.
- Authors want to know what people think about their writing, by reading reviews and comments
- All authors have the option to turn on Google AdSense and display content relevant ads on their Knol posts.
So what does this mean for the PPC community?
Because authors have the ability to gain a little bit on income by turning on AdSense, we are going to start to see a new content network, serving up Ads related to articles the visitor has come to read and interact with. As the visitor keeps coming back to interact with these articles, they will keep seeing the same company’s ads, can anyone say 'Brand Awareness?'
Until now the only real place that offered this type of exposure has been FaceBook groups. Having another medium is great!
This is going to be an interesting project to watch unfold.
on
Hi Thomas,
Why IS every new venture in the online world considered competition to this or that. I think bloggers are too eager to portray everything as malicious. Your write up unveils a new possibility by using the Knol feature. Yes Knol gives better room to authors by displaying their credentials. Ingenuity will always prevail!
on
Hi Thomas, this is a different dissection on knol and nobody pointed this persepective. All are eager to portray this Google initiative as a mere attack on Wikipedia then exploring its utilities. Good news for PPC advretisers!!
Nice post.
on
Knol cannot and will not kill Wikipedia. Like the economic principle of supply creating its own demand, Knol will definitely attract a batch of new authors who will contribute unique articles knowing that the credit for these articles will lie solely with the authors as their names will be displayed. This is an impetus which Wikipedia cannot take credit for.