Seth Godin’s Squidoo vs. Google’s Knol: Information Platform Battle 2008
Filed under: Google SEO, Interactive Marketing, Social Media, Squidoo SEO
Google has announced the very early stages of an online platform for the contribution of knowledge, similar to Seth Godin’s, Squidoo, launched back in 2005. Google’s new tool is called Knol, which stands for a unit of knowledge. Its goal is to allow authors to write articles on any topic in hopes that the article will become an authoritative resource of information. Each article will contain images, references, reviews, questions, and additional content.
While Knol’s model is extremely similar to Squidoo’s, it appears that Google is taking more a scholarly approach to the dissemination of information. Squidoo encourages any and all to create “lenses” about their passion, while it appears that Google is hoping that already established doctors, scientists, and authors will put their name on the line to give the “knol” authority from the start.
Godin appears to welcome the Big Gun into the space, stating in his blog “The nature of the Web, though, seems to be that because of the very openness of the system, imitation is the highest form of endorsement.”
Although, in response to Udi Manber’s posting about why Google is launching Knol ( “We believe that many do not share that knowledge today simply because it is not easy enough to do that.”), Godin did turn the sample knol into a Squidoo lense, stating “It didn’t take very long.”
Its hard to blame the guy for being a little perturbed. After all, Google will make sure that Knols more than sprinkles the search engine results, which will eventually cut into the growth of Squidoo. With that said, Godin is one of the smartest marketers/2.0 thinkers I have come across, and there is not doubt in my mind that he will give Google a run for their money.
Thoughts, comments, disagreements are all welcome…
Comments
4 Comments on Seth Godin’s Squidoo vs. Google’s Knol: Information Platform Battle 2008
-
Rob on
Sun, 16th Dec 2007 9:50 pm
-
admin on
Mon, 17th Dec 2007 8:33 am
-
Rob on
Mon, 17th Dec 2007 6:33 pm
-
Jeff Chavez on
Thu, 3rd Jan 2008 4:17 pm
Seems too bad Google’s moving in on Seth’s idea, but I gotta say, Squidoo is clunky, and I frequently have problems with it. As Seth says, you gotta be first, but you also gotta be the best. - We’ll see.
A lot of people have been comparing Knol to Wikipedia. I suppose this makes sense in the sense that Google wants Knol to be the first stop for someone researching a topic for the first time, however, without the collaboration function of a Wiki, I think Squidoo is a better comparison. If Knol does allow for significant amounts of collaboration they may just have the perfect recipe. What do you think?
I think people will stick with wiki if Knol doesn’t allow for collaboration. I think Squidoo looks too bloggy, and it’s so slathered in ads, I wouldn’t consider it an authority on anything.
I’d be willing to bet people who are really in the know about things would prefer to put their knowledge on the go-to site (which currently is wiki) rather than spend a lot of time monkeying with the Squid.
With corruption rumors circling around Wikipedia, maybe Google’s timing is right to make a move.
I really appreciated this post. I wanted my readers to see this also so I’ve provided a link to it from one of my posts.
http://northstarthinktank.typepad.com/northstar_thinktank/2007/05/do_you_squidoo.html
Keep up the good work!
Jeff
Tell me what you're thinking...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!
