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Google’s Knol

Google announced yesterday that Knol — their source for authoritative articles — is now open to the public.

The key principle behind Knol is authorship. Every knol will have an author (or group of authors) who put their name behind their content. It’s their knol, their voice, their opinion. We expect that there will be multiple knols on the same subject, and we think that is good.

Darren Rowse at Problogger asks if Knol will end up being a Wikipedia killer because its articles will probably end up in the top spots for Google searches — just as Wikipedia’s articles are now.  Rowse also asks if Knol could end up being a blog killer because the top search engine results will likely point to Knol and Wikipedia, rather than blogs.

Knol presents opportunities for content producers looking for eyes to read their works.

Knol also marks a change in Google’s business model — Google is becoming a media company with the opening of Knol.  This is an opportunity to produce content for a product that will skyrocket as soon as people start seeing Knol articles appear in Google search results.

Instead of being something to fear, the news that Knol has opened presents an opportunity for bloggers.  Since Google’s Knol is likely to end up at the top of the search results — after all they are the dominant player in the search business — you should write quality works for Knol — and using Knol’s content best practices on your own site — to get the recognition and traffic that will end up flowing to that site in the coming weeks, months and years.

Technorati Tags: blogging, Google, Knol, Wikipedia

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