Google rolls out wiki site

Hong Kong- Google expands its online offerings with Knol, a publishing and reference application, or the so-called "WikiGoogle", to challenge Wikipedia.

Google announced during Wednesday's launch that the key principle behind Knol, which is a play on the individual unit of "knowledge", is authorship - its writers are encouraged to identify themselves and each "knol" is published with a byline.

With a feature called "moderated collaboration", Knol serves to increase interaction between authors and readers that it allows readers to make suggested edits to an entry, which is subject to the entry owner's approval before it goes online. 

Knol focuses on individual authors or groups of authors in contrast to Wikipedia's subject entries, which are updated by users and edited behind the scenes. Knol does not edit or endorse the information; instead, its "moderate collaboration" feature allows readers to suggest edits to an entry, the changes will not take effect without the author's permission. However, readers will be able to notify Google if they find any content objectionable.

Aside from the publication platform, Google will provide authors with a revenue share from ad placements that are created through its AdSense program.

Knol's top rival Wikipedia has attracted more than 700 million visitors globally. More than 75,000 active contributors work on more than ten million articles in more than 250 languages, according to its own record.