Google challenged Wikipedia with Knol

Google Inc., which owns the world's most famous Internet search engine, has launched a Web site that competes with Wikipedia's encyclopedia dictionary.

Google's website is Knol. According to a blog posted on the Google website, which is based in Mountain View, California, the name Knol means 'knowledge'. Google has invited a group of users to test Knol pages in the past week.

Wikipedia was founded in 2001 and became the 8th most visited website in the world, according to October data from US market research firm ComScore Inc. To challenge Wikipedia, Google claims to have 75,000 active contributors to Knol, they have 9 million posts in 250 languages.

' Our goal is to encourage people who have a clear understanding of a specific topic to write valuable, appraised articles on that topic, ' Udi Manber, a vice president of Google, wrote. on the blog. ' A Knol article on a topic will be the first one for those who are learning about the topic they want to read .'

Google's Knol site will name the author next to the articles, Google said that will help users use Knol better.

Wikipedia has benefited from Google's search engine. For example, a keyword 'Barack Obama', Democratic presidential candidate from Illinois, hitting on the Google search engine, will result in links to the Wikipedia website just below the link (link ) leads to the right website of Barack Obama.

User retention strategy

Google's Knol product may allow it to retain many users on its own private website, not lose users to Wikipedia or any other page. Google earns 99% of its more than $ 10 billion in annual revenue from online advertising, mostly by selling sponsored links on Google search sites and partner sites.

' We welcome Google's Knol initiative ,' Wikipedia, the Web site, said in an email. ' The more free content is valuable, the better the world will be .'

In October, Google had 131.6 million Americans, more than twice the number of Wikipedia's 56.1 million, ComScore, the Virginia-based company, said. Meanwhile, Yahoo Inc., based in Sunnyvale California, has 136.8 million Americans.

Google shares rose 50% in value in 2007. According to the AP, Google, estimated to earn more than $ 4 billion in 2007, is looking to make more money from its new encyclopedia site.Although Knol will free information for users like its Google search engine, the company wants to place ads related to the topics.