Wikipedia Could Face Competition

The new service currently being tested by Google, called Knol (short for knowledge), allows people to create web pages on any topic. This service site is similar to Wikipedia and could turn into a competitor. The new service, which would post experts' knowledge on various topics, could turn Google into a company that helps create and publish web content, rather than just a search engine.

The New York Times reports that, unlike Wikipedia, which allows anyone to edit an entry, only the author of a "knol" would be allowed to edit it. Supposedly, a main idea behind the service is to bring attention to authors who have expertise on a particular topic.

Vice President for engineering at Google, wrote in an announcement, "We believe that knowing who wrote what will significantly help users make better use of web content."