Knol's edge on SEO

Today saw Google launch Knol, its answer to Wikipedia (with an added soupçon of Squidoo). And while there's little to talk about at present (as it's still in early beta), one obvious divergence from the world's most famous encyclopaedia is the fact that each article's author is named throughout in Knol, something that Wikipedia has not done previously.

My reaction to this idea? Personally I think it's great that there's more chance to learn and to appropriate knowledge from lauded professors and experts in their fields. I'm happy that we can invest a modicum of trust in what they say, something that hasn't always been the case with Wikipedia (despite its best efforts).

However, Wikipedia fans have also voiced their disapproval (oh no, it's first shots of the Encyclopaedia Wars; quick, to the shelters).

From an SEO point of view (oh, there's just always an SEO point of view with me), it's a slightly different matter though. To whit, it's another website that will end up in the mix at the top of the search engine results pages (surely Google will game the algorithm to promote Knol to the top); it's another website to try and overcome when aiming for the top spot. Wikipedia is already there or thereabouts, now we'll have Knol up there as well. Sigh.

I'm not really complaining, after all we're the lucky ones playing with Google's toys for free anyway, and really it's up to us as online marketers to provide good quality content that overcomes the likes of Wikipedia or Knol by appealing more to our readers in our efforts to rise to the top. And down the line there'll hopefully be chances to contribute/syndicate content (with links), something that'll help, especially with Knol lacking content.

The arrival of Knol just makes it that little bit more difficult to reach the top, that's all.

Labels: engine, google, knol, search, seo, wikipedia