Knol - As a Platform it is a Wiki-Blogger

Knol as a platform is a Wiki platform for Bloggers.

Whenvers bloggers want collaborative writing on a large scale they can publish a knol. Blogs and knols can supplement each other. Blog may reflect author's original opinion and knol may reflect the opinion of public on the same topic.

Ask questions and answer questions

KNOWLEDGE QUESTION AND ANSWER BOARD
http://knol.google.com/k/narayana-rao-kvss/-/2utb2lsm2k7a/654#

Google buying blogger 2003

Google is the encyclopedia of the connected age, and bloggers are the trailblazers. If Google simply uses Blogger to update its database more rapidly, it won't change the Web experience as we know it in any profound way. But a genuine trailblazing device would be a way of preserving—and widening—the paths that our lives have carved through information space.


Google's Memory Upgrade
How Blogger could do more than improve Google's Web searches.
By Steven Johnson
Posted Thursday, March 6, 2003,

http://www.slate.com/id/2079747/

Blogging Platforms for Webdesign

1. Wordpress (http://wordpress.org/)

2. TextPattern (http://www.textpattern.com/)

3. Moveable Type (http://www.movabletype.org/)

4. Serendipity (http://www.s9y.org/)

5. LifeType (http://lifetype.net/)

6. Flatpress (http://www.flatpress.org/home/)

7. Wheatblog (http://wheatblog.sourceforge.net/)

8. sBlog (http://sblog.se/wiki/Main_Page)

9. Eggblog (http://eggblog.net/)

10. Loudblog (http://www.loudblog.com/)

http://speckyboy.com/2008/02/03/top-10-free-blogging-platforms-features-for-web-designers/

State of the Blogosphere / 2008 - Technorati Report

http://technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere/

Very interesting REPORT


Some Points from the report

Bloggers and blog readers

eMarketer (May 2008)

94.1 million US blog readers in 2007 (50% of Internet users)
22.6 million US bloggers in 2007 (12%)


Universal McCann (March 2008)

184 million World Wide have started a blog | 26.4 US
346 million World Wide have read blogs | 60.3 US
77% of active Internet users read blogs



What is a Blog?

Wikipedia defines blogs as:

A Blog (a contraction of the term "Web log") is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order.


There are 76,000 blogs with Technorati Authority of 50+

Among those with advertising, the mean annual investment in their blog is $1,800, but it’s paying off.

The mean annual revenue is $6,000 with $75K+ in revenue for those with 100,000 or more unique visitors per month.

Note: median investment and revenue (which is listed below) is significantly lower.




Median Annual Investment $80 (US Bloggers) $15 (European) $30 (Asian)
Median Annual Revenue $200 (US Bloggers) $200 (European) $120 (Asian)

Knol is a Success

Knol has started giving its page wise visitor statistics. There are persons who wrote about the failure of knol. But the visitor statistics give the success story of knol. Knol as a platform is attracting visitors and authors. The feed back of visitors will motivate the current authors and attract more authors. Many bloggers who are specialising in knolwedge areas will gravitate to knol from blogs. Knol is a better platform for knowledge related articles.

http://knol.google.com/k/narayana-rao-kvss/narayana-rao-kvss/2utb2lsm2k7a/1

About.com Visitor details

About.com






Our Visitors Demographic Highlights of About.com

Total Audience: 38 million unique visitors monthly
Male/Female: 37%/63%
Median Age: 42 years
Median Household Income:$70,175
College Graduate+: 61%
Professional/Managerial: 41%
Employed Full Time: 59%
Married: 67%
One+ Children in HH: 46%
Homeowners: 76%


Compared to the average online adult, About.com visitors are more likely to:

Seek/give advice online1
Provide frequent advice on household products
Post/seek product reviews online1
Research products for purchase for their home or work online1


Compared to MSN, AOL, and Yahoo, About.com has a stronger composition of:

Moms2
Adults seeking personal health care information online1
Entrepreneurs starting their own businesses3
Visitors planning a vacation online1


Source: @Plan (Winter 2007/2008)
1last 30 days
2Women with children in HH
3Next/last 12 months


http://advertise.about.com/visitors/index.html

accessed on 12 September 2008