Archive of TheNextWeb.org
Written on August 29, 2008 – 10:46 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
The folks in Redmond have recovered from their unsuccessful attempt to buy Yahoo and are, once again, on a buying spree. Microsoft is about to acquire web-based survey company Greenfield Online for $486 million.
This acquisition gives Microsoft access to Ciao.com, a popular price comparison and consumer reviews site in Europe. Of course this immediately brings up questions about whether Ciao.com’s validity stays in tact. What if Microsoft plugs it Xbox games a little too much in the video games section?
It definitely looks like Microsoft gets particularly excited about Ciao.com, as it will sell of Greenfield Online’s main business, namely the Internet survey solutions, to an unknown buyer. Reuters reports that this part of the company accounts for about 75 percent of Greenfield Online’s overall revenue.
With major companies like Microsoft and Google buying media outlets, the validity of formerly trustworthy tools like search machines and comparisons sites becomes doubtful. I earlier reported about Google ranking its own content higher in the search results (i.e. Knol above Yahoo! Answers), the same might be happening with Ciao.com.
Hopefully, these developments might spur an anti major media company sentiment. While we’ve agreed with multinationals buying news papers (Murdoch et al), it may be easier to develop alternatives to sites like Ciao.com. Will “has no mother company” become a popular marketing slogan?
I hope you like that post!
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Written on July 25, 2008 – 4:30 pm
David Petherick, Contributing Editor, United Kingdom
The Google Knol I created just yesterday entitled ‘How to Read the Russian Alphabet in 75 Minutes‘ is already appearing on Page 1 of a Google Search for “read russian” with 12,300,000 results following.
The curious fact that you can’t find the same content in a search within Google Knol is obviously a beta-release issue, but that’s still a pretty impressive result for content that I created and put online only yesterday. DISCLOSURE: Google say they’ll pay me from any Adsense revenue the page generates!
Well, we’ll see how it develops, but it looks like a fairly effective way to share your knowledge, get good search positions, and also perhaps make some money. Until someone pinches your content…
Written on July 25, 2008 – 11:46 am
Joop Dorresteijn, Contributing editor
Granted, most people do not see Knol as a direct threat to Wikipedia, and the title of the post might upset some people… Even Google noted that Knol is not designed to compete with Wikipedia, but you have to admit that from a online knowledge-base perspective, the sites are quite similar. Knol might become the preferred choice in this field within a very short time.
1. Moderated data
The big difference between the two is that Knol is less anonymous then Wikipedia, it allows the author to moderate their respective articles. The idea is that the Author remains involved, since their name and reputation is permanently attached to it. This approach takes people out of anonymity and potential incorrect contributions, and might lead to higher quality articles prone to error. Knol allows the community to rank respective Knols, and allows more Knols about the same topic, another big difference between the two services.
2. Ads enabled
Knol will have ads enabled from launch, supplied by Google AdSense. Simply enable your adsense in your profile page, and you are ready to make some money from your content. If you have been contributing to Wikipedia (or not), simply copy your data to Knol and get Adsense dollars from it.
3. Google pagerank
Wikipedia currently enjoys a lot of top ranking results on Google, but one day after launch, Danny from Search Engine Land found that 1/3 of the pages listed on the Knol home page that I tested ranked in the top results. Example: He found that the search term “How to Backpack” scores on number three, i’m not sure if Google applied any additional page-rank to the site, as the search term scores in the top three on Yahoo as well. However, the fact Knol’s search results appear on Google are an immediate threat to Wikipedia’s traffic.
In other news: Dutch company Knol sells steamcleaning equipment, not domain names!
Written on July 25, 2008 – 11:17 am
Robin Wauters, Next web enthusiast & Plugg organizer
By now anyone who’s interested in the next web knows about the public beta release of Google Knol, the Google-owned Wikipedia killer that actually reminds me more of Squidoo than the free encyclopedia we’ve all grown accustomed to seeing pop up in the first search results for a whole lot of keywords. And if you’re not interested in the next web, you’ll soon get to know Google Knol too. Some ‘knols’ (units of knowledge) have already started getting spectacular rankings in Google’s search engine, a trend that will no doubt continue.
But rather than speculating if that’s good or evil, I noticed something funny when looking up more information about Google Knol. I wound up on Knol.com, which is home to a Netherlands-based steamcleaning equipment vendor. They’re featuring news releases on their homepage, and one of them was about the launch of Google Knol, which obviously drove quite some traffic to their website as well.
It’s in Dutch, so let me give you the rundown: after the blog post from Google announcing the public beta launch, the company received tens of thousands of visitors from over 130 countries to their website. Knol appreciates the fact that so many heads are now turned in their direction (despite the fact that it’s bound to be quite irrelevant traffic, I might add) thanks to Google, but they want to make it clear that they will not be evaluating any offers for their domain name, which is now obviously worth a lot more than last week. This is the part of the news release that made me smile:
“NOTE: We sell steamcleaning equipment and don’t sell our domain !!”
I’m left wondering if Google got in touch with the company themselves, and how much cash they would be prepared to throw at them for acquiring the domain.
Written on July 24, 2008 – 3:30 pm
David Petherick, Contributing Editor, United Kingdom
I first wrote about Google Knol when the topic was first aired in December 2007 on Google’s Blog, in my article “Knol is on a Roll: Google’s new economy for online authors?” at Digital Biographer.
A knol is a term Google had created for a ‘unit of knowledge’ and the announcement created a great deal of interest and speculation, as much for the lack of details as for the excitement at what it might evolve into. Many commentators called it ‘Google’s Wikipedia killer’ but as I said then, that was simply a lazy and incorrect generalisation - but there was little very specific information. And today, many commentators are again likening Knol to Wikipedia - see related links below.
Today, Google has announced its public beta of Google Knol, defining Knols as “authoritative articles about specific topics, written by people who know about those subjects.” So from today, you can start to add your knol, or knowledge. This is a beta version, so of course there are rough edges, and Google will be looking to get feedback on many aspects and issues. (I for one found that I could not log at all in using Firefox on my Mac, but have had no problems with Camino or Safari.)
Some positive features are what Google calls ‘moderated collaboration.’ “Any reader can make suggested edits to a knol which the author may then choose to accept, reject, or modify before these contributions become visible to the public.” Nice.
Google, why I can’t verify my identity?
However, one issue that seems a very basic oversight is that ‘Name Verification’ (so you can verify that you, as an author, are who you say you are) is only available for those based in the USA. The systems available for those Knol authors in the USA are via Phone or Credit Card checks. Pardon me for pointing out the obvious, but there are telephone directories and credit cards used all over the world, Google. The raised credibility that Google cites arising from verifying yourself is therefore, at present, reserved exclusively for you only if you live in the USA.
So if you live anywhere outside the USA, do not send to know for whom Google knols, it does not knol for thee. (Apologies for that play on words to John Donne)
This is not the sort of even-handed approach you’d expect from a global player like Google - and the fact that there is no mention of OpenID or even Google’s own identity systems like Google Checkout or Adsense strikes me as a missed opportunity, even for a beta-stage development. The fact that one can share revenue with Google by electing whether or not to show Google Adsense Adverts on one’s Knol content makes this a very strange omission, and I fear, one that may open Knol up to a lot of spam entries or gaming.
I managed to log in and add a Knol to Google this morning entitled ‘How to read Russian in 75 Minutes‘ (I’ve proved that this works in a 75-minute lecture in 2005, by the way) but at present, my Knol on Reading Russian only appears in a search when I am logged in with a Google login (the login I use for Gmail, Google Reader etc), but it the knol is reachable with a link, whether or not I am logged in.
However, the range of ‘Featured Knols’ as samples that appeared on my screen today had me speechless - they covered Diabetes, Lung Cancer, Toilet Clogs and Tooth pain. Wow. Maybe that’s Google’s way of encouraging you to add better content - or at least, to add more cheerful and uplifting content!
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