Google Knol – A Review – Part I

Knol is Google’s aim to become a one stop shop for people who are searching for authoritative articles on various topics. In essence, you can think of Knol as a user-generated dictionary or encyclopedia that covers everything from health to technology topics. Here is why Knol matters:

• Quality Content: Since we are talking about Google essentially challenging Wikipedia here, you can be sure that they will try their hardest to offer the highest quality Knols to their readers. Google mentions that they do not bless any articles on Knol, but authors who are writing on Knol essentially put their reputations on the line which gets us to the second point.
• Community Rating: Google Knol allows you to rate other author’s articles. They use a 5 star system which makes it easy for readers to show their approval or lack there of for a Knol. Readers can also review Knols (similar to Amazon reviews) which allows them to express their thoughts with more than just a couple of stars.
• Collaboration: Not only you get to share your article with authors, you can allow them to make edits to your article (similar to Wikipedia). If you keep your article open for public, then you can expect other authors to make minor or major changes to your articles. The Community collaboration and feedback system creates a content ecosystem where content gets refined and perfected with the passage of time.
• Content Licensing: One cool feature with Knol is the ability to license your articles. The default is creative commons, but an author can reserve all rights on each Knol.
• Monetization: Making money writing Knols may not be a big deal to some, but it is something that Wikipedia lacks. In essence, once you write an article, you can edit the HTML code and ad Google adsense advertisement to your articles. While this could be encouraging to authors who provide quality content, there could be a few who take the shortcut and focus on the money than on value to the Knol community. But the Knol community will most definitely punish such authors with negative reviews and feedback.

Few Things You Should Know Before Getting Started With Google Knol:

• Identity: You are required to provide your true identity to Knol. While there maybe ways around that, Google Knol strongly encourages users to share their identity with the community to give credibility to their articles and feedback.
• Verification: You can verify your account by phone or by credit card. You are not required to do so, but Google strongly suggests you verify your information.
• Profile: The first time you log on to Knol, you’ll be presented with the opportunity to write your profile. This page will be the page that people are redirected to when they click on your name. Make sure you don’t write an article in your profile as it could happen easily. You can also change your displayed name, your occupation, and add a photo, or add links to your profile.
• Access: You can access Knol using any Google accounts username/password. Google will automatically fill out your name for you if you have it on file in your Google account. If you are using a fake name in your Google account, you may want to change that in your Knol account.

Knol is not really hard to work with. The most important task that you perform on Knol is writing articles and leaving feedback for others. Obviously you want your feedback to be useful for the community so pay extra attention to article that you are reading before leaving a 5 star for it.

Why Should You Use Knol:

You make ask yourself know, “why should I use Knol?” It’s very simple. You should use Knol to:

1. Share knowledge and learn from the Knol community: If you know something valuable, share it with the community. These days sharing something you know can open doors for you. You can get paid too but that should be secondary. You can also learn a lot from the Knol community members and great article on Knol. And unlike Wikipedia, reading Knol feels like reading a blog and not an encyclopedia.
2. Network with Knol Members: By sharing and participating in the community activities, you can find people who share the same passions as you do, and you can do a whole lot of networking on Knol. Think of Knol as another FaceBook, but one that you actually do more learning and less playing with Apps.
3. Establish your Authority on a Topic: You maybe the best diet expert on the planet, but if you don’t promote yourself and people don’t know your work, then there is a good chance that you are not going to get the recognition that you deserve for all your hard work and passion for your subject. Share your great articles with others to show your authority on a topic. Who knows. You may get a blogging/consulting gig out of it.
4. Help make the Web a better place: The social community is the most important aspect of Knol. Make sure you take time to review and rate articles in order to help the cream rise to the top. If you have used Google, you know how tough it is sometimes to find a good article about what you are searching for. Knol provides all of us with the opportunity to help make Web a better place.

What’s Next:

In the next post, we will get down and dirty with Knol and go over how you can create a profile and start writing and playing with articles on Knol. So stay tuned for the part II of Introduction to Google Knol.