Feeling the Google Knol Burn

When the Google Knol was first announced, there was a lot of buzz going around the blogosphere about whether or not Google was stepping over that thin line that separates a search engine and web platform from a content provider. And it is no great surprise that Google Knol's official debut has been met with much of the same reaction.

Mark Hopkins at Mashable has a great post on the evils of the Google Knol. He also refers to a blog post by Jason Calacanis, CEO of Mahalo.

I don't agree with Mark's assertion that Google is "severely risking their own revenues" with Google Knol. At least, not based on his idea that those marketing products might forgo Google AdSense advertisements and cut into Google's bottom line.

But they are taking a fundamental risk by walking a very thin line. This isn't like Yahoo providing content. Google owns enough of the search market that they are approaching monopoly status. If they also start providing content and that content ranks high in their search results, they could be setting themselves up for a backlash from their customers or even the federal government stepping into the picture.

Unfortunately, as much as we might like to think otherwise, the chances of a backlash from Google's customers is pretty remote. A vocal minority -- sure -- but most people will keep on doing what they are doing.

The concern being expressed is that many companies rely heavily on Google's search results. If Google is becoming a content provider, this creates a massive conflict of interest the size of that asteroid shooting toward the Earth in Armageddon.

The big question being asked is whether or not Google actually is a content provider. After all, Google is simply providing the platform for the public to create content. But, as Jason Calacanis mentioned in his not-blog post, other companies have been burned by Google.

Google Holds Much More Power Than Microsoft

This is where Google must really step softly. Microsoft held a lot of power in the computer industry. And they were not afraid of using that power to crush their competition. Microsoft was built on using one technology to force out the competition at another. They used MS-Dos to force manufacturers to put the not-so-popular Windows on the computers they sold. And they ran Netscape out of business by forcing manufacturers to put the Internet Explorer icon on the desktops.

But Microsoft was just a pebble compared to Google. The world is becoming increasingly reliant on the Internet, and that means the world is relying on Google to tell them where to go on the Internet. This puts Google in a position to do great harm.

For example, About.com has an Alexa ranking of 86 which puts it as one of the most popular web destinations in the world. Compete.com estimates that About.com had almost 40 million monthly visitors throughout the first part of this year. And yet, if Google took About.com out of their search results, the company would go under. In fact, if Google simply hardcoded the search results not to display any About.com sites in the first page of results, the company would go under.

And this is true of any company that relies on the web for a significant part of their revenues, whether they provide content, sell products, or offer services. That puts a lot of power in Google's hands.

Google's Knol Mistake

Google's primary mistake in the Knol is giving it a web address of "knol.google.com". While Blogger, YouTube and other Google properties also offer user-generated content, the Knol offers that content under the Google domain. Not only will that help Knol pages in search rankings (an article on a large trusted site tends to do better than an article on an untrusted or small site), it will also give the page more weight to the person doing the search who might mistake the content for being directly from Google.

This will also feed the fire of people accusing Google of intentionally ranking Knol pages higher. While this would have happened to some extent no matter what domain Google decided to put the Knol under, having it under the Google domain will certainly add fuel to that fire.

Google will also have to deal with a fair bit of spam. Many speculate that Squidoo, which operates under a principle similar to the Knol -- and was most likely what the Knol was patterned after -- has been deranked by Google because of the amount of spam and the number of link farms that exist on the site. These same people will no doubt hit the Knol with a passion, which will leave Google with the decision of hiring a staff of spam fighters or being forced to derank the Knol.

Where Does That Leave the Knol?

It is anyone's guess what the future might have in store for the Knol. Mark Hopkins sees a future where the Knol is used to redirect web traffic in order to hawk snake oil. Other's see it as the next Wikipedia.

But Mark is definitely right about one thing: Google is taking a risk in creating such a tool and putting it on their own domain.

What do you think?

Speak out in our forums.

Concerns About Google Knol From Around the Web:

• Does Google Rank Knol Pages Too High?
• The Google Knol Threat to Content Businesses
• Google Knol: The Future of Spam
• Google Knol - Google's Latest Attack on Copyright
• The Day After: Looking At How Well Knol Pages Rank On Google