Will Knol For Food: A Weird Blend of WordPress, Blogger, Ask.com, Wikipedia and eBay

ByNalts

Thanks to MCase (loyal WillVideoforfood reader) for pointing out Knol. This is Google’s answer to Ask.com or Wikipedia, where you can write about a subject and share in advertising revenue if anybody cares to read it (and is so bored by it that they click the text ads and stop).

Here’s my knol biography, and I’ve placed a few articles and my eBook inside. I’m not asking you to go rate them 5 stars, but I would like you to remember that Nalts introduced Knol to you (2 years from now, when the term “knolling” is as pervasive as “googling”).

A Knol (see site) is an “authoritative article about a specific topic.” Anyone can write one like Wikipedia (although you can’t edit them). And readers will decide if it’s authoritative or hog wash (like how we score eBay sellers and buyers).

Knoling solves a need — we uninformed humans want vetted, credible content.  Google helps us find it sometimes, but we still don’t have a scalable social network infrastructure for weeding out the accurate from the crap. And don’t talk to me about Squiddo, people. There are probably more people using Twitter right now, and the gap from early adopters to mainstream is wider than my ass has grown since I developed spondylolisthesis and a fractured sacrum… clearly caused by my day job (and not those pratfalls you make me do).  

Of course there’s got to be a “what’s in it for me” for subject-matter experts to knowledge share-  I wouldn’t have knoled my articles this morning just to be nice, or on the chance that these will get views more than my blog. I am chancing on some meager Google adsense revenue. Maybe it’s the next YouTube (which is non trivial) and maybe it’s the next Amazon affiliate program (which is non profitable for me anyway).

Now here’s the million dollar question. Will it Knol get us indexed better on Google? TechCrunch called this out back in December, and this move put Google further into the content business (which is like being the broker and seller in one). What cracks me up about this TechCrunch article is that it doesn’t point out a similar situation. It’s, um, called YouTube?

Knol It All (www.knolitall.com) is already squatted. Puns are the second-lowest form of humor (after sarcasm), though.

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17 Comments

  1. sukatra, can’t wait til you sign up and add your comment to his Knol biography…whatever it is, I’ll definitely “thumb it up!” :o)

    I was going to write the following, but didn’t have the heart to do it. “Nalts is a PETA hating, tree-spider loving tool!”

  3. Well, I was going to post a comment on your knol but I couldn’t figure out how to do it without my real name showing up. So here’s what I was gonna say:

    “Of those 40 million views you’ve gotten, how many are yours?”

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I crack myself up!!!

  4. Happy birthday to you,
    You live in a zoo!
    You smell like a monkey,
    You look like one too!

    That’s the song that’s gonna run through my head all day. And now yours.

  6. Why do I get the feeling this is just another in a long line of accounts Nalts has left inactive, littered along the information superhighway.

  7. I have no unit of knowledge to share. I’m keeping my unit to myself. I’m sure others will expose their units to the benefit of society, flashing their tidbits for all to see, but not me.

  11. I like being called a “loyal WillVideoforfood reader”; it sounds so much better than stalker.

    Also, remember, that while Nalts may have introduced you to Knol, I introduced Nalts to it, so you will really be thanking ME in the future, not Kevin.

  13. marilyn it wouldn’t take my comment even as anonymous. maybe it knows who i am.

  17. Totally OT, but worth mentioning:

    Professor Randy Pausch, well known for his highly motivating “Last Lecture”, passed away Friday morning.

    If you have not seen his video, “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”, please do so. It is definitely worth watching. He was an inspiration to many and will be missed.
    http://youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

Comments are closed.