Google
has kicked off a project to create an authoritative store of information about
any and every topic. The search giant has already started inviting people to
write about the subject on which they are known to be an expert.

Google said it would not act
as editor for the project but will provide the tools and infrastructure for the
pages. Many experts see the initiative as an attack on the widely used Wikipedia
communal encyclopaedia.

Writing about the project on
the official Google blog, Udi Manber, one of the heads of engineering at the
search firm, said it was all about sharing useful knowledge. By indexing the
web, Google strives to make information more easily accessible. However, wrote
Manber, not all the information on the web was "well organised to make it easily
discoverable".

By getting
respected authors to write about their specialism Google hopes to start putting
some of that information in better order.

The system will centre around
authored articles created with a tool Google has dubbed "knol"—the word
denotes a unit of knowledge—that will make webpages with a distinctive
livery to identify them as authoritative.

Manber wrote, "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 knol pages will get search
rankings to reflect their usefulness. Knols will also come with tools that
readers can use to rate the information, add comments, suggest edits or
additional content. Like Wikipedia, articles in knol will be free to read
online. In a departure from the Wikipedia model, however, knol’s authors
will be able to attach advertising to their work and take a share of
revenues.

Industry commentator
Nicholas Carr said the knol project was a "head-on competitor" with Wikipedia.
He said it was an attempt by Google to knock ad-free Wikipedia entries on
similar subjects down the rankings.

Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia
founder, who recently launched a rival search engine to Google’s,
questioned whether they would be able to generate enough "quality content".

Via Times of India