Experts Can Create Lenses on Squidoo

Posted on December 12, 2005

Squidoo is a new website looking to capitalize on the blogging trend by letting members set up lenses where they can enter information about a specific subject. Here is how Squidoo defines a lense.

A lens is one person's (lensmaster's) view on a topic he cares about. More specifically, a lens is a single web page filled with information and links that point to other web pages, to continually updated RSS feeds, or to relevant advertising. It's a place to start, not finish.

Squidoo says it is not looking to replace blogs or websites. Instead Squidoo says it can be used to boost traffic for webmasters or bloggers. Squidoo also sells advertising and says lensmasters can make money on Squidoo. They have a university called SquidU where Squidoo members can learn how to become a better lensmaster.

The India Times calls Squidoo a cross between "About.com, Wikipedia, blogs and social networks."

Cross About.com, Wikipedia, blogs and social networks. What you get is - Squidoo, the new service launched by author and online marketing guru Seth Godin which allows you to create, manage and maintain web pages or mini guides on various topics. These pages, which he calls 'lenses', put a magnifying glass under a topic, and hopefully filter the information into the perfect starting point for researching a given topic.

That is a pretty good description. Squidoo will probably get better if and when some of the better "lenses" become more obvious.