Duplicate Content warnings on Google Knol

[David Petherick [Digital Biographer]]

Google Knol has spotted content in a PDF file on one of my web sites that's open to Google, and it's flagging it up on the Google Knol page that draws on that same original content.

I think it's probably safe to say that such results may not do as well in search - and it is obviously a mechanism that will help Google protect copyright and stop theft of content.

Looking at a Knol about Digg, you can see that it works quite well, citing three separate sites that have the same content. Whether Google will act on blatant theft like this by removing Knols remains to be seen, but the best way I think to deal with this is to vote down the content and call out the author with a comment.