By Eric Auchard SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) opened its website Knol to the public on Wednesday, allowing people to write about their areas of expertise under their bylines in a twist on encyclopedia Wikipedia, which allows anonymity.
"We are deeply convinced that authorship -- knowing who wrote what -- helps readers trust the content," said Cedric DuPont, product manager for Knol.
specific pages, DuPont said.

After seven months since it was announced, Google finally opens its Wikipedia-like web product KNOL to the public. I could understand why it took Google that long to launch Knol, for one it needs to populate the site first with relevant, enticing and interesting articles from its beta authors to make Knol appealing to the public. And so it did. Knol, currently has a slew of “authoritative” articles and the site certainly looks more a live site now.
Like we said during our first coverage, Knol is being touted as a direct Wikipedia rival. But there’s a direct difference between Knol and Wikipedia. Where as Wikipedia allows anyone to edit entries as a social collaboration feature,

You know how déjà vu is? I’m feeling that today, since it’s been seven months since Google Knol was announced, and they’re just now getting around to going live. And what we said at the first announcement still looks to be true: “Google Runs Out of Content to Monetize; Wants You to Build More.”
Despite obvious similarities, Google Knol will make no claims of aiming to kill Wikipedia. In case you’ve forgotten, knols are [DEL: small hills which may or may not be a good place for a gunner’s nest :DEL] “authoritative articles about specific topics, written by people who know about those subjects.”
suggestions from everyone in the world while remaining in control of their content. After all, their name is associated with it!

By Jacqueline Emigh, BetaNews With initial topics ranging from "How to Backpack" to "Toilet Clogs," Knol -- Google's answer, of sorts, to Wikipedia - has

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Google Inc. is taking the wraps off an Internet encyclopedia designed to give people a chance to show off — and profit from — their expertise on any topic.
The service, dubbed "knol" in reference to a unit of knowledge, had been limited to an invitation-only audience of contributors and readers for the past seven months.
the knol.

Google today launched Knol, an online encyclopedia that, in many ways, mimics Wikipedia, the popular encyclopedia that anyone can edit. As in Wikipedia, anyone can create a page in Knol. But changes to the page become active only after they are approved by the page’s author or authors. And unlike Wikipedia, the author’s name is featured prominently on Knol articles.
Among the featured articles on the Knol site today are “How to Backpack,” “Lung Cancer,” and “Toilet Clogs.”

After six months of testing, Google is letting the public start using Knol, its effort to build an authoritative reference out of user contributions. When it was announced late last year (see “Google’s philosophy: Knol thyself“), Knol sounded like a cross between the anyone-can-edit give and take of Wikipedia and the individual contributions of expertise found on Squidoo, and that’s the way it’s shaping up.
As Google explains it, “The key principle behind Knol is authorship. Every knol will have an author (or group of authors) who put their name behind their content. It’s their knol, their voice, their opinion. We expect that there will be multiple knols on the same subject,

By Heather Havenstein July 23, 2008 - Seven months after Google Inc. announced plans to launch its own Wikipedia-type project, authors on Wednesday were invited to submit content to the new site, called Knol (which means a unit of knowledge).
Though the concept is quite similar to that used by Wikipedia, Google said it is not looking to compete harshly with the established site. The company said it is focusing on highlighting the authors who submit articles to the site. Each knol will have a single author or group of authors whose name or names will appear with their contributions, Google noted in a blog post.
r, he acknowledged that offering the ability for anyone to

By David Chartier | Published: July 23, 2008 - 04:09PM CT Google today flipped the switch on Knol, a new service where users can share knowledge in a wiki

Jimmy Wales' Wikipedia is the seventh most visited site on the Net (says Alexa), and Google (GOOG) isn't going to let all those pageviews escape its grasp.
Today the company opened its "Knol" user-generated guide-to-everything to the public, encouraging Web surfers to create content on topics ranging from backpacking to lung cancer.
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A few months ago we announced that we were testing a new product called Knol. Knols are authoritative articles about specific topics, written by people who know about those subjects. Today, we're making Knol available to everyone.
The web contains vast amounts of information, but not everything worth knowing is on the web. An enormous amount of information resides in people's heads: millions of people know useful things and billions more could benefit from that knowledge. Knol will encourage these people to contribute their knowledge online and make it accessible to everyone.
With this feature, any reader can make suggested edits to a knol which the author may then choose

Today Google has launched Knol, its Wikipedia alternative that holds authors accountable for the articles they write. Each article is created by a team of authors who receive attribution, and are allowed to take part in a rev-share for AdSense ads on their page. Other users can submit changes, but they have to be approved by the article’s original authors before they go live on the site (it’s basically a moderated Wikipedia).
Google says that it will allow multiple people to create Knols on the same subject. Knol allows users to rate and review Knols, and will likely include ranking as part of search results so we don’t have to sift through countless articles on the same topics. You can see an example article (a Knol that tells you how to write Knols) here.
e anything.

Google just opened up Knol, its Wikipedia competitor, to the public after announcing a private beta of the service last December. Unlike Wikipedia, Knol puts a stronger emphasis on authorship and even encourages users to start different 'knols' for the same subject. Google is also serving up AdSense advertising on the site, whereas Wikipedia stays away from any advertising on its site.
In many respects, Knol is similar to Jason Calacanis' Mahalo, though its scope seems even more ambitious and its tools a bit more refined. It does, however, validate the Mahalo model.
ll be even more interesting to see if Google might start sharing these Knol identities (and maybe even the users' reputation) among more of its properties.

by Chloe Albanesius Google Knol emerged from its seven-month closed beta Wednesday, and is now open for people looking to share their expertise on

Anyone remember this? Google first announced Knol, a user-generated, online encyclopedia, back in December 2007. It's been in hibernation since then, as it spooled up its design, added content and otherwise coalesced. Well, today it finally went live, albeit with only several hundred articles. Can it really take on Wikipedia?
Wikipedia already has a pretty big lead on Knol. Knol, short for knowledge, is meant to draw upon subject experts for its content. It was started by Udi Manber, who was disappointed that certain "black holes" existed in the Internet where data or information on certain things simply wasn't available. According to Wired, Google is banking on the project

By Doug Caverly - Wed, 07/23/2008 - 2:41pm. We've noted time and time again the way in which Wikipedia receives loads of traffic from Google,

Google has launched Knol, its user-generated online encyclopedia, which it announced in December but had kept under wraps in private testing.
Although its goal and approach are similar to Wikipedia's -- to tap the collective knowledge of Internet users within an encyclopedia format -- Knol is different in several ways.
ll give authors the ability to have their identity confirmed via a telephone or credit card verification process. Articles penned by these authors will appear with a "verified" stamp, he said.

After six months of testing, Google has formally rolled out Knol, a service designed to let people create pages of knowledge on any topic they choose. While Google says Knol is not designed to compete with Wikipedia -- and there are good arguments to back this up -- I still think the easiest way to describe the service is Wikipedia with moderation. Below, more about this, the service in general and some of the issues it may raise for Google.
As many are aware, Wikipedia allows anyone to create and edit pages on all types of topics. Need to know about the BS 546 electrical plug used by old houses in Britain? I once did, and the Wikipedia community has created a page about

Months in the making, Google has finally unveiled Knol, its Wikipedia rival written by people knowledgeable in certain fields. The idea, as Google puts it, is to move information from people’s heads onto the web.
So what’s the difference between Wikipedia and Knol? The main one is authorship. Whereas Wikipedia entries can be created and edited by anyone with only an IP address being tracked, knols (the individual entries) will have authors with actual names that will be answerable for the content they create.
d to see it as anything but that. As Wired writes in its article interviewing Udi Manber, Google’s head of search engineering, Knol is:

Google's Wikipedia competitor, Knol, is now open to the public, according to the Official Google Blog. Knols are articles about specific topics written by

By Nicole Martin, Digital and Media Correspondent Knol, which stands for unit of knowledge, allows internet users to write articles on their own areas of