Is this your first time? (The Knol focus we may have missed)

[David Petherick [Digital Biographer]]

"A knol on a particular topic is meant to be the first thing someone who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read."

This is a key element in Google's announcement that nobody seems to have isolated:- "A knol on a particular topic is meant to be the first thing someone who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read." That was - "The 1ST thing when searching for the 1ST time".

First time. New search term has been entered by this user. So if I set a cookie or tick a box, I might never see that introductory explanation again... and Google is better placed than most to know what I have searched for in the past, isn't it?

I think this may be where a knol can serve a niche function - as a starting point (and with onward links that can inform further) for something that the search engine knows I don't know about. In this case, I can foresee that the brief summary and onward links will be the default view, the detailed knol of information being visible only on the 'first' visit, perhaps being hidden and more compact subsequently, so that the onward links come to the fore (as will the Google Ads of course).

In this manner, the author of the knol is more like the editor of a page that introduces a topic - but how the knol is ranked and rated and ultimately, listed in Google is the key unknown - along with the cut of the profits the author might take - and exactly what topics are going to rise to the top of the grassy knol first, and how affiliations might become key to an authors' reputation... perhaps it's time for me to make sure my Google Profile is up to date?

What do you think?

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

There is something wrong in Google Knol original statement. They cannot at the same time position "as an alternative to Wikipedia" (refer to Main page of KnolStuff site) and declare, as you report it hereover, "A knol on a particular topic is meant to be the first thing someone who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read." This is in total contradiction, and for this reason I never took into account any of these two statements. I believe that Google Knol team have not yet made their mind on future knol position in the field of knowledge and are only "playing" the early development of their software.

[David Petherick [Digital Biographer]]

I think you have a very valid point, Pierre.

Google have come out with nothing concrete in announcing Knol, and left important details and mechanisms entirely open to speculation. They are, to use a phrase, "flying a kite" with this concept to see what objections, barriers and problems may arise from it - and letting the wider community do that thinking and analysis for them - as you say "playing" the early development.

It's a sensible way to go forward - but I think they need to put more detail into this soon, and reveal a little more about the project.