Google has announced the shutting down of several Google services from the Google Search Timeline to their knowledge site, Knol. Here is a list of services Google is closing in the near future or has already closed: Google Bookmarks Lists closing on December 19, 2011, which leaves searchers with no way to recoup their Google starred results. Google Friend Connect is shutting down March 1, 2012 and sending people to Google +. Google Gears will lose all support on December 1, 2011 but Chrome now has offline support. Google Search Timeline is currently not working anymore. Google Wave [...]

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Google has fixed a bug that temporarily made Knol look like a ghost town this week. And, without exactly providing a ringing endorsement of its article writing service, Google says it is still supporting Knol. The Google Operating System blog suggested yesterday that Google had "abandoned" Knol and questioned if Google should or would shut it down. When we asked Google if Knol is still alive and if Google planned to close it, a spokesperson told us: Yesterday, we discovered a bug affecting the Knol service and have since resolved the issue. Knol is a beta product and supported by Google. [...]

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Google has added audio playback to some of its Google Knol articles; this page on Echocardiography is an example. Clicking on the "Listen" link in the upper right displays an audio player with surprisingly clear sound. Google Operating System recently pointed to more information on an Audio Knol help page: We are experimenting with Audio Playback as an option for some knols, starting with a handful of English language featured knols. You can listen using our Flash player, or by downloading an mp3 file and using any mp3 player. The page says additional languages may be added if the expe [...]

Related Topics: Google: Knol | Google: YouTube & Video | Top News

We've been assured that just because content sits on Google's Knol site, it won't gain any ranking authority from being part of the Knol domain. OK, so a day after Knol has launched, how's that holding up? I found 1/3 of the pages listed on the Knol home page that I tested ranked in the top results. I came away feeling that being on Knol does indeed give pages an advantage they might not get if they'd been hosted on some other brand new web site. I was surprised to see a post covering Knol's how to ackpack was already hitting the number three spot on Google. Really? I mean, how many links [...]

Related Topics: Google: Knol

After six months of testing, Google has formally rolled out Knol, a service designed to let people create pages of knowledge on any topic they choose. While Google says Knol is not designed to compete with Wikipedia -- and there are good arguments to back this up -- I still think the easiest way to describe the service is Wikipedia with moderation. Below, more about this, the service in general, and some of the issues it may raise for Google. As many are aware, Wikipedia allows anyone to create and edit pages on all types of topics. Need to know about the BS 546 electrical plug used by old [...]

Related Topics: Google: Knol