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Re:Knol getting preferential placement in search results? by nickb on Sunday July 27, 2008 @11:59PM (#258702)
Google shouldn't be in content business. I'm dismayed that they're following the 'peanut butter' strategy that has been such a destructive influence on Yahoo. If Google gets even more into content side of the business, they'll be in the conflict of interest with all of the ad buyers that are actually driving their business. By trying to generate 'a little bit of revenue' (from the google's perspective) through this, they will lose a lot more from companies that will seek alternatives.
Re:Knol getting preferential placement in search results? by Tichy on Monday July 28, 2008 @05:14AM (#258919)
Thanks to my economics education by reading JoelOnSoftware, I am guessing that Google is trying to make content a commodity. Their main business is to be able to search through vast amounts of content, hence the more content there is, the better for Google. So blogger, App Engine and Knol make perfect sense.

Joel on Commodities: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/StrategyLetterV.html

Re:Knol getting preferential placement in search results? by mechanical_fish on Monday July 28, 2008 @12:09AM (#258720)
This was my own first thought: What is it about Yahoo that seems so successful that Google wants to emulate their business model?
Re:Knol getting preferential placement in search results? by thorax on Monday July 28, 2008 @12:32AM (#258741)
While I don't think Google should follow Yahoo, I wouldn't say Yahoo has been unsuccessful.
Re:Knol getting preferential placement in search results? by greatreorx on Monday July 28, 2008 @09:02AM (#259018)
This moves reminds me more of Microsoft in the 80s. and then your question becomes, what is it about Microsoft that seems so successful that Google wants to emulate their business model?
Re:Knol getting preferential placement in search results? by ojbyrne on Monday July 28, 2008 @12:53AM (#258759)
Their stock price dictates that they have to continue to grow very fast, and they probably see the end of growth looming ahead (once they hit 100% share).
Re:Knol getting preferential placement in search results? by eru on Monday July 28, 2008 @01:18PM (#259280)
They share might not grow any longer - but there are still a lot of people offline.