There's a new player on the internet video/social networking scene - Free IQ. If successful, it threatens to revolutionize the way people search for, as well as produce, online content. The emphasis of Free IQ is on material that provides knowledge or information, all put into the context of a search engine that's also a social network! There is already a large and growing database of videos on many topics. Unlike the more random content of YouTube, FreeIQ was designed to be a place to share knowledge. This, of course, can take a multitude of forms. Right now a lot of the content pertains to marketing, especially internet marketing, which reflects the people who started and first joined FreeIQ. However, the field is wide open for people to share their expertise about almost anything. Everyone who uses Free IQ has a voice in the ranking of material. So when someone does a search, the top listings are those that the most people found helpful. This is a more democratic approach to ranking, as opposed to the usual search engines, which are often controlled by the marketers with the largest budget. This is in line with Free IQ's goal to be content-driven. The Free IQ home page actually looks like many search engine home pages. The results, however, tend to be more focused than what you would bring up on Google or Yahoo. Free IQ is also a social network, with member bio pages and mailing lists. The Free IQ site also includes a 2-tiered affiliate program, meaning that affiliates earn commissions on purchases from people they sign up, as well as people *their affiliates* sign up. While much of the site is commercial or business-oriented, the interesting thing about it is the amount of free content (as the name implies). While most of the free content, not surprisingly, points to something that ultimately costs money, there is quite a bit of valuable information being given away. While the net is full of free stuff, most of that is trivia, as opposed to useful knowledge. As with any new enterprise, we can only guess what the future will bring for Free IQ. The very nature of the format is experimental; it's fate will be decided by the fickle internet masses. I am hoping it will succeed and become larger and more diverse, if only because it represents a real potential for lots of free information on the net.
