Knol is the latest offering from world's leading search engine Google, believed to be a direct competition to Wikipedia.Org, The term Knol meaning "unit of knowledge" refers to both the project and an article in the project.
Unlike Wikipedia, Knol will have registered posters and no anonymous posting is allowed, the website is available to only invited beta users and no URL has been provided for the service yet to general public.
Only a single screenshot of the service was released on Google's blog here.
According to Google:
A knol on a particular topic is meant to be the first thing someone who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read. The goal is for knols to cover all topics, from scientific concepts, to medical information, from geographical and historical, to entertainment, from product information, to how-to-fix-it instructions. Google will not serve as an editor in any way, and will not bless any content. All editorial responsibilities and control will rest with the authors. We hope that knols will include the opinions and points of view of the authors who will put their reputation on the line. Anyone will be free to write. For many topics, there will likely be competing knols on the same subject. Competition of ideas is a good thing.
Danny Sullivan, an editor of Search Engine Land speculates, "Google’s goal of making Knol pages easy to find on search engines could conflict with its need to remain unbiased."
We would love to hear about your thoughts on this,
Will Google favor Knol over Wikipedia ?
Hulu.com the online video on demand service is limited to invited private beta users only for now, and you need to have HULU invites to join.
