Google's Knol Steps Into Ring With Squidoo and Hubpages
I call them web hubs, those one-page info dumps popularized by Squidoo and repeated by Hubpages. After all, they are intended to be a hub of information, so web hub seems an appropriate name.
Apparently, that's not good enough for Google. They thought it would be better to just invent their own word and insert it into the English language. That word is "knol," and it stands for "unit of knowledge." Now, it is obvious that knol comes from the word knowledge, but it does beg the question: just what does Google have against the W?
The Google Knol takes the web hub one step further by creating a simple interface with a WYSIWYG editor and offering tools to allow people to collaborate on a web hub. I guess you could say that the one step further Google Knol takes the web hub is a step in Wikipedia's direction.
But even though Google has simplified the interface for creating web hubs, don't think it is any less powerful. In fact, Google Knol gives even more control to the author by allowing them to directly edit the HTML created by the interface. This means writers and hub creators can make the page look like they want.
Of course, the burning question on everyone's mind is whether or not Google getting into the content game is a good idea. But Google has been in the content game for a while -- they do own Blogger and YouTube after all. And Google Knol is similar to those services in that Google isn't actually producing the content, they are simply hosting it.
And thus far, it doesn't look like they are cheating. The knol I created last night to test out the system hasn't even been listed in Google's search engine yet. By comparison, my first hub created through Hubpages was listed within a few hours. So, it doesn't look like Google is taking shortcuts with Google Knol. But the real test will be how well they rank in the search engine results.
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The less control google has over the internet the better, they already have a monopoly on advertising. Knols serve no significant purpose and the rules and reg’s stiffle good content that isn’t regulated by their rules.
I’ll go with the hubs and squids. score one for the little guys!!