Google has a new goal: help people share their knowledge. That’s right - forget Wikis, and welcome Knols (apparently "knol" stands for “unit of knowledge”). Although the service is right now invitation-only, the search giant isn’t shy about sharing what it’s trying to achieve (information domination). Knols will appear in Google search results, and it is promised that they will be ranked in order of quality. How will this beat Wikipedia? That’s an easy one. If the author chooses to, they can add advertising to a knoll and get a portion of the ad revenue.
The search giant plans to provide the software for writing and editing knols, as well as the hosting space for them. The knol project puts an emphasis on who wrote a given piece of information: “We believe that knowing who wrote what will significantly help users make better use of web content.” A knol is supposed to be the starting point for a research paper, it is meant to cover everything related to the topic, and Google swears not to change any information: “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”.