Date: 12-18-2007
Google is launching an online encyclopedia called Knol that will allow experts to create articles about particular subjects and post them on a set of specialized web pages. Knol, which means a unit of knowledge, is currently under an invitation-only status. "There are millions of people who possess useful knowledge that they would love to share, and there are billions of people who can benefit from it," opined Udi Manber, Google's vice president of engineering, in a corporate blog post. Readers can add comments, reviews, rankings, and alternative knols on a subject, but they cannot directly edit any knol. Knol authors will have an option to allow Google to post ads on their pages and share in the revenues. The new site will compete with Wikipedia.
