PuTech Naman!

Between the Google Video Debacle, the brouhaha over Pagerank penalties and allegations of Google favoring its own products (Youtube and Blogspot) the past few month has certainly been rough for Google PR-wise.

The recent announcement of Google Knol doesn’t help either. Knol (which stands for a unit of knowledge) is Google’s answer to Wikipedia.

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. The goal is for knols to cover all topics, from scientific concepts, to medical information, from geographical and historical, to entertainment, from product information, to how-to-fix-it instructions. Google will not serve as an editor in any way, and will not bless any content. All editorial responsibilities and control will rest with the authors. We hope that knols will include the opinions and points of view of the authors who will put their reputation on the line. Anyone will be free to write. For many topics, there will likely be competing knols on the same subject. Competition of ideas is a good thing.

What raises eyebrows however is the allusion to having “Knols” appear as the first items on any search on Google.

Google has already said that Knol results will be in Google’s index, presumably on the first page, and very possibly at the top: “Our job in Search Quality will be to rank the knols appropriately when they appear in Google search results.” Google wants Knol to be an authoritative page: “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”

So will the time come when all we see on the front page of a Google search are their products (Youtube, Blogger, Knol) ? Granted they don’t own the videos and blogs on Youtube and Blogger respectively but they do have an interest in promoting them and earning revenue in a roundabout way via Adsense.

And if it does happen can Google be sued for anti-competitive practices ? Although similar to Microsoft bundling their products with Windows to get an edge it’s not exactly the same thing. For one Google still gives you an option to access third party sites though buried in the latter search pages (which most users don’t bother to access). And technically they don’t own the content that they will be pointing to (though they own the platform).

So does recent events portray who Google really is ? Will we see some pushback against Google from the Net or will people shrug their shoulders and keep on towing the Google line ? 2008 promises to be an interesting time for Google…