Here is the take of a medical library person (not yet a medical librarian) on Knol.

First of all, the way I test a medical subject search engine is to try a subject I am particularly interested in: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. This enables me to judge in a few minutes several things.

For one thing, like most people when I am web searching I am usually in a hurry or in a state of intense curiosity. Therefore, I frequently misspell amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Rather to my surprise, Knol, though a Google product, did not come up with the ever tactful, helpful Google inquiry, “Did you mean…”  I then tried other terms for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis such as motor neuron disease and Lou Gehrig’s disease. Zippo.

I was asked, “Don’t like empty search results? Know something? Write a Knol.” Now that is an interesting idea. I am looking for information. Can’t find any. Do I then take the time to so educate myself on the subject that I can fill the need that I have discovered at Knol or do I simply depart forthwith and head straight for MedlinePlus, PubMed or OrganizedWisdom? Are there statistics on how many people return to Wikipedia to write an entry? At least Knol doesn’t seem to have the same sort of zealous gatekeepers that bar the door at Wikipedia and at Knol I was able to check on the credentials of the author of the knol, “Specific Information about the Four Major Leukemias.”

Well, I didn’t know there were any major leukemias. But then the article says, “AML is the most common of the four types of leukemia.” So are there are four types or four major types? I am sure that the author, who is indeed a very distinguished person (helpful biographical link on Knol) knows. But say I actually wanted to write Frederick R. Appelbaum, MD and say, “Say doc, which is it—four types of four major types—how many types total?” But when I clicked on the “Email” icon here:

http://knol.google.com/k/frederick-r-appelbaum-md/frederick-r-appelbaum-md/ARIH1WmU/gTdhlQ#

instead of being enabled to email Dr. Appelbaum I was given a screen, “Hope Leman invites you to view a knol entitled “Frederick R. Appelbaum, MD.” But that isn’t a knol but just a brief bio of Dr. Appelbaum. The article is the knol. But the wording on the home page is, “A knol is an authoritative article about a specific topic.” But I would think that Dr. Knol—sorry, make that Dr. Appelbaum—provided the info. Is that authoritative? I mean, I could say, “Hope Leman is a leading expert on…” anything I chose to be on any given day. But I wasn’t sure who wrote the bio on Dr. Appelbaum but then got a little lost and decided to go back to the article. But this time round I got these results:

Search Results:
Results 1-2 of about 2 for leukemia
·    Leukemia
Definition Leukemia is a term used to describe a number of related cancers of the blood-forming cells, characterized …

byFrederick R. Appelbaum, MD

Published version 5. Last Edited on Mon Jul 28 19:07:52 PDT 2008
·    Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a malignant cancer of white blood cells, mostly affecting B lymphocytes. Normal…
bySebastian Hofbauer

Published version 4. Last Edited on Mon Aug 04 04:48:09 PDT 2008

So where are those quite confusing four type thingies?

I decided I had better find out more about knols. I went briefly into the Google group about it and saw this charmingly misspelled question, “Well-stablished knols suddeny vanish from index — anyone else had this trouble?” What index? Does he mean the home page—which does seem to drop subjects that had been there minutes earlier, which forces you into a too intimate acquaintance with your back button or a trip into the search function which only sometimes contains a link to what Dr. Appelbaum wrote about four types of leukemia or four major types.

Tiring of the subject of leukemia (as no doubt you are too), I decided to use Knol to up my understanding of glaucoma:

http://knol.google.com/k/-/glaucoma/2wh7rfrg3de3/5#

I learned the following:

“Mother, that is sick, slow or immediately after birth show symptoms… Second, the eyes often Suanzhang, after the rest will be eased… carefully remove each of the patients…”

I wonder about the future of medical search knowing that Google wants to index all the world’s knowledge and to add to the sum of it via Knol.

Thanks to Hope Leman.