Knol Could Push Google into Content Creation

Up to this point Google has built its business on helping people find information. In the future, Google also will help people create information. It inexorably will move, in other words, from being a search utility into an information utility. The reason is pretty simple.

What Google does is amass user interactions and attention by giving people powerful search tools. But its monetization scheme is classic media: ad revenues. In some sense, Google "packages" and "distributes" information and content, as does a cable TV operator, magazine or radio or TV broadcaster.

Google also creates its own content, as when it supports Blogger users, for example, or when it pays people for creating compelling content for YouTube. In that role Google is akin to a movie studio, newspaper or record label, in paying for the creation of content.

As some might note, Google has had a mixed record of success in launching new services. It owns YouTube because its homegrown video site wasn't getting traction. GTalk hasn't moved the needle in the instant messaging space. So there is nothing inevitable about the commercial success of Google's Knol effort.

Knol is a new Web service being developed by Google meant to serve as a storehouse of knowledge on the Internet. It apparently will be based on content contributed by various experts on different topics.

Knol will allow people to create Web pages on virtually any topic, and where Wikipedia attempts to create unified entries representing the best information the entire base of users can create, Knol might aim to aggregate various expert opinions on subjects, even if conflicting, rather than a unified view of any subject.

Think of the approach as a library of great books rather than a dictionary.

Google says the Knol project is meant to focus attention on authors who have sufficient expertise on particular topics. Something more akin to a research tool than Google's engine might be, in that sense.

Also, keep in mind that Knol has been described as a project. As sometimes happens, Google might simply decide to go another direction or cancel the project.

The overall impression, though, is that Google is slowly adding content creation to its content-finding mission. Another change is that Google also is a large ad placement entity. In that sense it redefines media in other ways.

It acts as an advertising agency for placement of ads and publishes content as well. So Google is not simply providing search or ad placement. It is contributing to a reshaping of the traditional way media and other parts of the value chain have operated.

300 Million Text Messages New Year's Eve: Verizon

This New Year’s Eve, Verizon Wireless expects its customers to send and receive more than 300 million messages in the 16 hours between 12 p.m. today and 4 a.m. ET New Year’s Day. This forecast of SMS use by Frost & Sullivan shows how expectations have grown over the past couple of years as Frost & Sullivan analysts raised their forecasts.

Australian ISPs will Have to Filter Web Content

Australian Telecommunications Minister Stephen Conroy says Australisan Internet Service Providers will be required to provide filtering of pornography and violent Web sites as the default option for schools and consumers. Senator Conroy says anyone wanting uncensored access to the internet will have to opt out of the service.

Firm Acquires 10 Percent of EarthLink

Steel Partners, a New York-based investment firm, has acquired nearly 10 percent of the shares of EarthLink Inc., or 11.9 million shares. Steel Partners said the total purchase price of the shares is $97.3 million.

Steel Partners is controlled by Warren G. Lichtenstein, a young corporate raider and associate of investor Carl Icahn. Steel Partners may now be EarthLink's largest shareholder.

Vonage, Nortel Settle Patent Dispute

Vonage Holdings Corp. and Nortel Networks Corp. have settled their intellectual property dispute by cross licensing their VoIP patents.

The settlement involves a limited cross-license to three Nortel and three Vonage patents, and dismisses claims relating to past damages and the remaining patents. The settlement is subject to final documentation.

The licensing concerns technology used to make emergency calls or dial 411. Neither company will pay the other anything for any alleged unauthorized use of its technology.

The settlement points up the increasing importance patent portfolios seem to be assuming in the service provider space, mirroring the enhanced importance such portfolios have assumed in the hardware and software space, where cross-licensing deals are a standard way suppliers settle such disputes.

This year Vonage has faced--and lost--several suits from other service providers over use of VoIP-related patents. At some level, one has to wonder whether any independent service providers using anything other than standard hardware and software sold by the largest providers is protected from similar threats. Vonage appears to have placed itself at greater risk precisely because it developed at least some of its own technology, instead of buying it.

In December Vonage agreed to pay AT&T Corp. $39 million as part of its settlement. Vonage has also agreed to pay Sprint Nextel Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc. a total of $200 million to settle their respective lawsuits.

Vonage sued Nortel in August, claiming three patents Nortel held were mistakenly granted to the company. Nortel counter-sued, claiming Vonage is violating a total of 13 of Nortel's patents, and asked that Vonage be kept from using the technology.

Internet Access Big Library Attraction

Generation Y "Millenials" (age 18-30) are most likely to turn to libraries for problem-solving information of all generational groups, say researchers at the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Faced with a problem in the past two years that they needed to address, about one in eight adults (13 percent) say they turned to their local public library for help and information. And it appears computer availability is a reason.

Some 65 percent of adults who went to a library for problem-solving help said that access to computers, particularly the Internet, was key reason they go to the library for help.

Also, 62 percent of adults who went to the library for help actually used the computers at the library. At the same time, 58 percent of those with problems to solve said they used library reference books.

About 42 percent of those with problems to solve said they read library newspapers and magazines.

The problem most likely to be cited by those who went to libraries seeking information was an educational issue such as making a decision about a school, getting more training, or finding financial resources to do so. That reason was cited by 20 percent of the adults who went to libraries for help.

Asked whether they would go to a library in the future to help them solve problems, 40 percent of Gen Y respondents said it was likely they would go, compared with 20 percent of those over age 30.

About 53 percent of American adults report going to a local public library in the past 12 months. The profile of library users shows an economically upscale, information-hungry clientele who use the library to enhance their already-rich information world, Pew researchers say.

Public library patrons are generally younger adults, those with higher income and
education levels, and those who are Internet users. Parents with minor children living at home also are very likely to be patrons. There are no significant differences in library usage by race or ethnicity, Pew researchers say.

RIAA Suit: Not as Bad As First Thought

Engadget has done some digging and reports that the Recording Industry Associaton of America's lawsuit against Jeffery Howell is not for ripping CDs to an MP3 player, but to pedestrian illegal downloading. While we might disagree about the practice, RIAA is within its rights to pursue that sort of action.

So it appears the difference is the public assertion, as part of the suit, that MP3s ripped from legally owned CDs are "unauthorized copies." That remains the more critical issue. Is that sort of thing, done for personal use by the legal owner of a music CD, fair use or not?