Submitted by Yi-Wyn Yen01.21.2009
Thunderdome
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News149027Salesforce's
Betting closes on Dec 01 2009
Google is on a rampage to get rid of its low-hanging fruit as a way to cut costs. Recently, the big G decided to drop Google Print Ads along with a number of other products like Jaiku, its Twitter-like competitor, and video uploads to Google Video.
Google launched Knol, a Wikipedia competitor, in July 2008. Google boasts that Knol has published more than 100,000 articles. That's great, except some say that no one is reading Knol and the site's filled with low-quality content.
Google apparently has no problems getting rid of products that don't gain traction. It dropped Lively, an online virtual community, just six months after it launched.
Prediction: Google will announce by the end of this year that Knol will go bust.
Current Community Consensus 21%Prediction Statistics
| Betting Closes: | Dec 01 2009 | Current Consensus: | 21.42% | Total Bets: | 18 |
| Today's Change: | 0% | ||||
| Life Time High: | 58.66% | ||||
| Life Time Low: | 21.42% |
Price History
Comments
Knol seems much closer to Google's stated mission to organize the world's information, so this one may be kept on life support.
I think everyone is missing a huge point with the Knol project. All other Google products we use, but with the Knol project we as individuals have been invited to participate ... even to partner. Who wouldn't want to partner with the biggest online player on the planet. I have been contributing to the Knol project since Aug 08 and now 80% of my 14 Knols are on Page 1 one of Google & Yahoo.
The big point everyone is missing is that when you post your content on Knol, Google then have a direct stake in it which protect my work from plagiarism. Every time a small window on my Knol tells that the contents has been copied on the net, I send a note to Google and they fix it because it is in their direct interest to do so. The plagiarised site soon becomes invisible ... cool hey!
Here is my Knol explaining the benefits of writing Knols and becoming Google's partner in content development.
http://knol.google.com/k/peter-baskerville/how-to-write-knols-that-rank-...
Great intentions alone will not sustain it in dire times where cost cutting and maximizing revenue in the business world is paramount.
SAI piece titled "Why Has Knol Survived Google's Orphan-Project Killing Spree?"
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2009/1/why-has-knol-survived-googles-orphan-...
And a Googler's response:
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/google-knol/
@Garrick, nice find on mattcutts's blog. This definitely supports the survival of Knol for the time being (for how long? who knows!).
I don't think Google will axe this project because it gives them great exposure and also builds partnerships with some very influential authors.
I put my first Knol up in Aug/2008 http://knol.google.com/k/jay-granofsky/top-10-ten-seo-tips/3udnymr0y2e8g... and I would hate to see this project killed.
Now knol has around 250,000 articles and it is racing toward one million. There are many persons who are happy with knol articles. The relevance and utility of knol is to be recognized.
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