A new service is about to launch that will allow individuals to create, manage and maintain “mini-guides” to specific topics, products, people and issues.

Mini-Guides, or lenses, as Seth Godin, the idea man behind this service has named them, are nothing else that well organized web pages focusing on one, very specific topic.

Differently than blog pages or news articles, lenses cover a specific niche item in great detail while providing links to relevant related resources, selected opinions and reviews from others, recommended books on the topic, key source authorities and blogs or news sites covering that topic.

A lens it’s a mini-universe of know-how and resources focusing on a very specific topic. It is a one-page encyclopedia about a specific topic, product or issue.

The new service called Squidoo is now in “secret” beta, will allow anyone to build their own public mini-guides on whichever topics they will want to cover. It will make it easier, faster, more credible and more accessible than it has ever been possible until now. And at no cost.

Not only.

It will make this proposition economically sustainable by providing the means to integrate contextual advertising, relevant affiliate products and sponsors as well as commissions from affiliate products and services promoted on the page (e.g.: books, DVDs, etc.) while sharing the returns with each mini-guide author.

While Seth Godin gently refused to be interviewed in an audio conversation on the topic, (he wrote in: “I’m not doing any internet audio. The audience is just too small“), here are some more details and information about this truly interesting initiative.