What is Google Knol?

Firstly, Knol is not really the same sort of thing as Wikipedia. Rather, Knol is more akin to an article repository (like ezinearticles.com) or a lens site (like squidoo.com). The invention of Udi Manber (formerly Chief Scientist at Yahoo! and CEO of Amazon’s A9.com), Knol opened in beta on 23 July 2008 and has since grown exponentially.

The term knol is defined by Google as a "unit of knowledge" and users are invited to contribute knols on more or less any subject. At time of writing, the home page features articles on non-euclidean geometry, feeding clownfish, Jesus and what to do on Venice Beach, California.

What are the differences between Knol & Wikipedia?

In addition to the obvious (i.e. that Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia, whilst Knol is an article repository), there are a number of other important differences between the two:

1. A Wiki stub should always meet the “notability” test for inclusion; meaning that the “topic has received significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject”. A knol, by contrast, could be about pretty much anything, whether notable or not! One simple implication of this is that an ordinary person (who has never been cited in multiple newspaper articles, books or TV programmes) might have a biography on Knol but would almost certainly not qualify to have a biography on Wikipedia.
2. The authors and moderators of Wikipedia content may chose to remain anonymous. Knol, by contrast, requires all authors to identify themselves.
3. Wikipedia users are free to create, edit and even mark for deletion any or all of the content on the site. As such, single topics are edited collaboratively and evolve over time. Knol, by contrast, respects the original copyright of an article. As such, whilst users can append questions or comments to articles, they cannot alter the original content of other authors. It is likely that, over time, multiple articles will be submitted on each and every topic. As Google put it “for many topics, there will likely be competing knols on the same subject. Competition of ideas is a good thing.”
4. Wikipedia is essentially non-commercial and any overt advertising or anchor-rich text ads on the site are typically removed very quickly. Knol, by contrast,  permits “Content designed to promote businesses, products or services” (although articles devoid of substantive content are not allowed). More importantly, authors may elect to have ads from the Google Adsense programme carried alongside their knolls – and share in the revenue derived from user click-throughs.

What are the SEO Implications of Knol?

Many of my fellow SEO Experts have already researched and blogged about the position of knols within regular Google searches. The general consensus is as follows:

1. Whilst Knol pages do not currently carry high PageRanks, they appear to out-rank other copies of the same article in precise match searches on phrases within that article. This appears to be an exception to the normal rules on duplicate content in the Google algorithm. As such, it appears Google is giving Knol a priority (that many see as unfair) in it’s own Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). [note Google have denied this preference and may find ways to address these ranking issues over time]
2. Where the original (duplicate) articles carry a Creative Commons (or other unrestricted) license, which permits the re-use or incorporation of that content into other works, there is thus a risk that someone could expropriate your content, include it in their own Knol and push your original article lower down the SERPs.
3. This is leading some authors to switch from “some rights reserved” to “all rights reserved” copyright for their articles (i.e. to prevent any redistribution or reincorporation of content into knols). As some article sites require that articles are not restricted in this way, this could lead ultimately to authors publishing their own work only on their own sites.
4. The knol itself is encoded so that all outbound links are LINK REL="nofollow" – meaning that Googlebot will follow the link but will not count the link towards the PageRank of the target page. In this way, a knoll may deliver traffic to your referenced site but will not confer an improved SERPs position on your target page.

Copyright issues aside, it is clear that a knol article will be of value to webmasters seeking to attract targeted traffic to their site or to acquire additional revenue streams (i.e. from the placement of Google Ads alongside their articles). As such, I am recommending to clients that they seriously consider adding content to Knol where either of these requirements apply. However, I am also recommending that such content is written only for Knol – and that the syndication of articles to other sites also remains a part of their website promotion strategies.

Conclusions

Google Knol is an interesting – and already very successful – beta venture and likely to feature prominently in future website promotion strategies! However, it is important to understand that it’s role is in the acquisition or monetisation of traffic, rather than the improvement in the position of any target page in Google SERPs. There is, in fact, a small negative impact on the latter, where a knoll risks pushing other (duplicate content) pages of your own further down the results.

As such, I recommend clients proceed cautiously but enthusiastically with Google’s new baby. As an old colleague of mine once said, “all of us are smarter than any of us”. May the knowledge spread!

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