The ‘expert’ content creation space is definitely hitting the big time with google entering the market, but does Squidoo need to be worried besides watching what Google does? I don’t think so and here’s why:

Marketers vs. Academics –

As I browsed around the Knol site to get a feel for it, I came away with a very dry and almost sterile impression. I think Google’s definition of ‘expert’ is going to vary signficantly from Squidoo’s. By expert, I think Google is hoping to see academics and scientists writing position papers, similar to a peer review. This makes sense as Google is founded and run by very smart academic minded people so clearly the site is going to reflect those influences.

Conversely, Squidoo follows the mantra that everyone is an expert and everyone deserves a shot to talk about themselves, their business, their ideas and their opinions. While this can lead to a slightly less serious tone than what knol appears to be targeting, I think the result is that Squidoo is much less intimidating to build a page on.

Marketers 1, Academics 0

The Media Experience -

Squidoo allows you to add all kinds of feeds, videos, products, examples, data, charts, and other rich multimedia to help prove your case.

Knol doesn’t.

Community -

While many people are avid users of Google’s search engine as well as their Gmail platform, Google is still going to have to create a core group of die-hard early adopters to make the site work. This is harder to do than it looks but Google has done it in the past. If Google can in fact get a community together, their ability to scale may create a monster.

Right now, the money’s probably not good enough (Adsense only) for authors to leave Wikipedia or Squidoo for it (Yes, even though Wikipedia is free it still has massive mindshare and offers some power to its power users).

Customer Service -

It will be interesting to see if Google can provide the levels of service that the 6 people at Squidoo and the 15? or so at Wikipedia can with their gigantic workforce of thousands.. I doubt they can.

Inertia –

Google Knol still has to get through the Dip in order to really come out as a major player in this space. The more users that other ‘expert’ sites pick up, the harder this will be.

Summary –

Squidoo isn’t going anywhere. I do see Knol eventually filling a niche as something of an online peer review forum for academics and scientists which I think is actually sorely needed in that area. If Google really wanted to challenge Wikipedia and/or Squidoo for direct users, they would have allowed you to add a ton more media, integrated their social networks, and generally thrown a lot more resources at it.

What do you think? Fired Calamari or Squid Supreme?

If you have dismissed the Wiki Module in the past, the Captain recommends that you go back and take another look at it now.

What’s Changed:

• The Wikipedia Module will now search for an article that matches the keywords that you put into the search box.
• If there are multiple results you are able to choose which you prefer.
• You can choose to insert the picture from the article as well as however many characters you want from the introduction.

Where to Find it:

• When you click ‘Add Modules‘ you will need to ’search (A-Z)‘ and then click on the letter ‘W’.
• A single Wiki module is included by default in all new Squid Who pages.

Why it’s worth extra Dubloons:

• If you are creating a sales page, commercial lens, or a lens where almost all of the visitors will know what you are talking about before hand, this is perfect.
• Don’t worry about rephrasing Wikipedia for basic information
• Use the time saved to add more value and truly unique content
• Educate uninformed visitors about a product, company, person, or place in a few sentences.

Where to use it:

• I’ve found that these are effective in three places in my lenses
  1. Immediately following the introduction when I want to give a ‘history of‘ type of impression.
  2. Immediately before a moneymaker to help describe the product.
  3. Immediately before the Guestbook to provide a ‘cherry on top‘ kind of effect.

Special Captain’s Secret:

Use the following code to insert your own picture in place of the default wikipedia picture:

<img src=”http://www.YourLink.com/web/address/pic.jpg” alt=”Picture Name” align=”left” />

Simply place this in the text/write area of the Wiki Module and you can personalize the look with your own image.

There’s a way to take this secret to the next level, but I can’t give all my secrets away in one day…….

-The Captain