Google launches rival to Wikipedia

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Google has launched its own version of communally constructed online encyclopedia Wikipedia, which consistently ranks among the most visited websites in the world.

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The Internet search powerhouse went live late Wednesday with a free service dubbed “Knol,” to indicate a unit of knowledge.

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While Wikipedia lets any visitors make changes to its online pages, trusting that people with accurate information will correct errors and misleading entries, Google lets folks author their own articles.

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“Every knol will have an author, or group of authors, who put their name behind their content,” Google product manager Cedric Dupont and software engineer Michael McNally said in a posting on the Google website.

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“It’s their knol, their voice, their opinion. An enormous amount of information resides in peoples’ heads: millions of people know useful things and billions more could benefit from that knowledge.”

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People get to post their pictures and pedigrees in knols and are able to designate who can contribute to their postings.

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Most knols featured at knol.google.com on Thursday dealt with medical conditions but included insights regarding unclogging toilets and improving leadership skills.

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Google is the world’s most used Internet search engine and a proven master at mining revenue from online advertising targeted at those making queries and using its free Web-based services.

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Luring Wikipedia users to its own community-created online encyclopedia promises to be another rich vein of ad income for the California firm.

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Wikipedia is consistently ranked among the world’s top 10 most popular websites.

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