On 6 Jan 2010, the indexes started to vanish. The first one I noticed was the authors index, but then the others started to go, and direct links started to fail, sending the user to a query which returned no results. The problem was reported on the Knol Help page, most users there believing that their knols had "disappeared", when I realized the most likely culprit was simply that the indexes to those Knols, had been blanked out. This Knol will test whether I can make a new knol appear in any index, or not.
Test of the Indexes on Knol.
After creating this Knol, I tried to search on the word "Index" but got nothing. I then went to my profile, and selected "My Knols" and it was still blank. So creating a new Knol does not "wake up" the indexing function.
Next I added a category to this test Knol of "Knol". The category appeared in the right-hand panel as normal. I then clicked on that "Knol" category link, which would normally display all the other Knols in that category, but when the page opened it showed No Results.
I then visited the Knol front page, and the entire page was empty. No links to any knols off that page. So something pretty serious occurred.
At 7:00 PST (California time) I notice that apparently all the indexes are now rebuilt, so the Knols once again are displaying.
Test of the Indexes on Knol.
After creating this Knol, I tried to search on the word "Index" but got nothing. I then went to my profile, and selected "My Knols" and it was still blank. So creating a new Knol does not "wake up" the indexing function.
Next I added a category to this test Knol of "Knol". The category appeared in the right-hand panel as normal. I then clicked on that "Knol" category link, which would normally display all the other Knols in that category, but when the page opened it showed No Results.
I then visited the Knol front page, and the entire page was empty. No links to any knols off that page. So something pretty serious occurred.
At 7:00 PST (California time) I notice that apparently all the indexes are now rebuilt, so the Knols once again are displaying.