Googles own Article Directory? Will it eventually overtake EzineArticles?

24 replies
I see google has its own Ezine competition Knol Knol - a unit of knowledge: share what you know, publish your expertise. has anyone used them yet and been able to track any results.

I was just wondering what the thoughts are as this could be game changer for the other article directories, no? I mean ezines claim to fame is how well it ranked ... surely Googles own product will ranked and be indexed far quicker or am I missing something.

Just have not seen alot about this on heer and was wondering what the forums thoughts are?
#article #beta #directory #googles #success
  • Profile picture of the author dvduval
    You know I read about it and even wrote about it when it first came out, but I don't hear people really talking about it. I would guess it is not a very big thing, as people tend to want to build their own sites.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alfred Shelver
      Thats very surprising seeing that article marketing is so big and Google is the biggest thing ever, Put the two together and you should have massive press releases .... could those of us who have taken notice be at the start of something big ...?

      Originally Posted by dvduval View Post

      You know I read about it and even wrote about it when it first came out, but I don't hear people really talking about it. I would guess it is not a very big thing, as people tend to want to build their own sites.
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  • Profile picture of the author Bruce NewMedia
    Well it seems to me one measure of Knoll should be, ...do Knoll articles get ranked?
    I don;t know if I ever have seen one ranking in the niches I work in, have you?
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  • Profile picture of the author ElectricChili
    I haven't seen any Knoll articles ranking in my niches but I'm thinking that maybe I don't want to wait until they do. I'm going to put a few up to see how they rank.

    Jeesh! Thought I was done writing this weekend.

    Rich
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  • Profile picture of the author kevinw1
    There was a lot of discussion on this when it first came out back in August 2008. A forum search on Knol with the threads listed in ascending date order will give you a list starting back then. So no, it hasn't been ignored... but it never seemed to take off.

    I have one Knol published, and get a bit of traffic from it - in that specific niche, it works better for me than eZA, but not as well as my Squidoo lenses.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jeremy Kelsall
      I don't see Knol show up hardly ever when I scrape the first 2 pages of Google for competition research, and I've never really seen any significant traffic from it in relation to the 20 or so piece of content that I've published on it, so for me it has been a failed experiment
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      • Profile picture of the author Alfred Shelver
        Okay so its been around since 2008 thanks guys allot of this information was very useful. I am wondering if some of the results you are experiencing is googles way of just letting this product naturally progress up the rankings. If you read some of the most read numbers they are decent. Well i still think it is something worth persuing as Google does not often fail or maybe Iam being Naive

        Originally Posted by ElectricChili View Post

        I haven't seen any Knoll articles ranking in my niches but I'm thinking that maybe I don't want to wait until they do. I'm going to put a few up to see how they rank.

        Jeesh! Thought I was done writing this weekend.

        Rich
        Originally Posted by kevinw1 View Post

        There was a lot of discussion on this when it first came out back in August 2008. A forum search on Knol with the threads listed in ascending date order will give you a list starting back then. So no, it hasn't been ignored... but it never seemed to take off.

        I have one Knol published, and get a bit of traffic from it - in that specific niche, it works better for me than eZA, but not as well as my Squidoo lenses.
        Originally Posted by Jeremy Kelsall View Post

        I don't see Knol show up hardly ever when I scrape the first 2 pages of Google for competition research, and I've never really seen any significant traffic from it in relation to the 20 or so piece of content that I've published on it, so for me it has been a failed experiment
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  • Profile picture of the author troy23
    Now that Google are about to relase a rival to Windows I doubt article marketing will be high on their list of priorities.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
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      • Profile picture of the author c.t.coburn
        BTW can you sell or transfer a knol as you can with Squidoo lens? I can't seem to find that info on their site or in any postings on the subject.

        or am I having a brain freeze and you just go in and change any relevant links, info any time you'd like?
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  • Profile picture of the author bronnamdi
    I have heard about Knoll but it appears Google just flew a kite to sample people's reaction to their having an article directory. To date, I have not seen any article from Knoll in the Google search engine. If you have seen one, I should like to know.
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  • Profile picture of the author Marhelper
    You would have figured that big G could have cornered the market but it went nowhere apparently - surprising!
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  • Profile picture of the author H3x
    I didn't even realize that Google had their own Article Directory called Knol, will look into it but as people have already said it does sound like it didn't really take off.
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    • Profile picture of the author x3xsolxdierx3x
      Ezine has some serious issues to address ASAP, so, I'm not sure that anyone "overtaking" them would be such a longshot.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alfred Shelver
      Do I see a rant coming on... just kidding would you care to elaborate Ezine seems to be bread and butter for many so was wondering why?

      Originally Posted by x3xsolxdierx3x View Post

      Ezine has some serious issues to address ASAP, so, I'm not sure that anyone "overtaking" them would be such a longshot.
      Me neither till yesterday I looked at their most read and some health articles in great niche;s had loads of views, And i know many have said they did not get great rankings but also bu many own admissions did not really submit much either. There is another tool if you look closely where Knol articles are featured on your google homepage this could also be a great traffic spinner I just wonder if people have used it enough?

      Originally Posted by H3x View Post

      I didn't even realize that Google had their own Article Directory called Knol, will look into it but as people have already said it does sound like it didn't really take off.
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      • Profile picture of the author x3xsolxdierx3x
        Yes, I've "ranted" about this before here....lol....One thing, for instance, and I know they have a business to run, however, why would I continue writing for Ezine Articles, when I can gain similar search engine authority on emerging business models AND gain a % revenue share, rather than pay their monthly/yearly charge.....which, some argue, can be really quite hefty.....? Not complaining...it's just a general trend. People can get similar search engine authority AND earn a % revenue share elsewhere.

        To me, they are beginning to come off a bit greedy.


        Originally Posted by nashelver View Post

        Do I see a rant coming on... just kidding would you care to elaborate Ezine seems to be bread and butter for many so was wondering why?



        Me neither till yesterday I looked at their most read and some health articles in great niche;s had loads of views, And i know many have said they did not get great rankings but also bu many own admissions did not really submit much either. There is another tool if you look closely where Knol articles are featured on your google homepage this could also be a great traffic spinner I just wonder if people have used it enough?
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  • Profile picture of the author christopherNV
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    • Profile picture of the author dvduval
      Originally Posted by christopherNV View Post

      What issues? I'm curious.
      I would expect it would be related to a lot of articles being posted purely for the benefit of search engines, and the number of actual readers being quite low.
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      • Profile picture of the author SledgeHammer
        The good thing about Knol is that it's having a PR 6
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        Mithun on the Web
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  • Profile picture of the author AverageGuy
    i used knol for some time, then stopped. simply because I think it is not user friendly, at least not to me. and sometimes, it shows some bugs.

    BTW, many google's project failed, i would say knol is one of them.
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  • Profile picture of the author Quentin
    Well I put an article in Knol and got 40 views and two sales so I will persist.

    Quentin
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    • Profile picture of the author Alfred Shelver
      Thank you for that; see i knew someone was getting some use out of it it just seemed to have too much going for it to be a complete failure.( Thanks for not doing what you show in your avatar Pic )

      Now if you could give us links to those articles you will get allot of views, and i promise no one will steal you Niche and put huge competition on you.


      Originally Posted by Quentin View Post

      Well I put an article in Knol and got 40 views and two sales so I will persist.

      Quentin
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    • Profile picture of the author x3xsolxdierx3x
      You all may find this article interesting: (I didn't write it)

      Why you should not write for ezine articles?

      They can run their business however they choose to, however, with more and more very generous revenue sharing websites emerging, I have difficulty believing that, as they gain page rank and authority, that people will continue paying for EZA's monthly subscription service ($97/month, or less yearly, escalating in value with each option)....

      Not to mention, EZA has a Premium Adsense Account, which means that they are not only allowed to show MORE ads than ordinary publishers, but they are able to even negotiate directly with Google for revenue share. So, not only do they not share revenue with writers, but, they are also monetizing the search engine authority (and a few other perks...faster article approval, etc...)

      I'm not complaining...I'm just saying that they should be attuned to the emergence of similar website platforms, that do essentially the same thing, yet, on top of the search engine authority, also provide very generous and lucrative revenue share. There are several of these Web 2.0 properties that, if one studies the trends and data, are about to make the jump over to being a Premium Adsense Publisher. When this occur, you'll see a huge flock of people leaving those sites that actually charge people for services or add-ons, that they can get elsewhere, for free. (thinks "Instructables", EZA, etc...)

      I'm simply saying that EZA may be 'forced' to adjust or alter the way it does business in order to remain the prominent force that it is today. There is certainly room for "market share" to be gobbled up quickly if they aren't careful.
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      • Profile picture of the author Arcana Media
        Knol could easily overtake Ezinearticles and anyone else.. it's Google. The #1 search engine by far.

        All they have to do is tell their results algorithm to "rank knol above all others", and voila: it would outrank every other article site for every keyword.

        The only problem might be bad PR, since it would seem like a bit of an abuse of power, but it's their search engine and ultimately the can do ALMOST anything they want with it.

        Seeing as how AOL and Yahoo and other large corporations are buying up or creating their own article banks (and, related, hyperlocal news sites written by amateurs) - usually reselling the articles to mainstream media for a huge profit - I can see Google wanting to enter that market someday. And knol would be the perfect base to ramp it up quickly.

        Let's face it - if article writers here and on other forums heard that Google's knol was now outranking the sites they currently write for (and especially if they had a revenue sharing system similar to the Youtube Partner one) EVERYONE would swarm there in droves.

        So right now it's pretty mediocre at best. But if Google decides it really wants to use it - Knol would crush virtually all its competition within a month.

        EDIT: and along these lines, Google has purchased Metaweb. So maybe metaweb + Knol = $$
        http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...-business.html
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