So, let’s see a show of hands – who’s been browsing around Google Knol recently? No? Me neither. It’s been six months since they launched, and I can’t say they’ve made a tremendous impact on my life. But now may be the time to reconsider.

To refresh your memories, a Knol is “a unit of knowledge”, and the idea was that Google Knol would be a newer, better and less anonymous Wikipedia. The authors of each article are named, and sometimes include a photo and a biography on their Knol pages.

Knol has been criticised for being “awash in poor content” and “not the kind of site designed for browsing”. While I agree, I think it’s too early to write it off completely.

Matt Cutts suggests that Knol is a great place “when you want to write a quick article or put some information on the web”, and this is where I think everyone should pay attention. Anyone who’s ever tried to put information up on Wikipedia knows how hard it is – your material will be edited to death and suffer attacks from various competitors who don’t want to see any links to your site. Wikipedia is like the European Union of websites, full of strict rules and petty bureaucrats and legislators.

Knol, on the other hand, is still the Wild West, ready and waiting for any brave pioneers. So go ahead and post some articles. Will it pay off? Will you see any traffic? Probably not for a long while. But if you get in now, you could be in a good position to reap the benefits in the future.

Share and Enjoy