More than half a year after first unveiling the Knol concept, Google rolled out the new Wikipedia-alternative, based on the same concept of concentrating the vast amount of information on the Web in one place for the benefit of billions of people, but with a lot of different ideas.

Unlike Wikipedia, Knol supports authorship, which Google believes will help users make better use of web content and make the content more trustworthy. Furthermore, readers are encouraged to contribute not only with new articles on the same topic, but also with suggested edits to an existing knol, which the author may take into consideration, reject or modify before making it visible to the public.

Through this “moderate collaboration” as Google called it, people will be encouraged to contribute their knowledge online, make it accessible to the public, have their own opinion with their name on it, and at the same time accept suggestions from people all over the world while remaining in control over their content (unlike Wikipedia, which allows users to edit some of the entries).

Once again, unlike Wikipedia, Knol is built on “competition of ideas,” encouraging people to write articles on the same subject and compete with other knols, while putting their reputation online. Knol will reunite a collection of blogs, covering all topics, from scientific concepts, to medical information, geographical and historical facts, as well as how-to-fix-it instructions, Google explained.

Anyone can write an article, without having Google interfering as an editor: “Google will not serve as an editor in any way, and will not bless any content.” All editorial responsibilities will belong to the authors, the company said. Authors can also opt for open collaboration, allowing any signed-in user to edit the knol.

Furthermore, authors can obtain financial gains, by simply including ads from Google’s AdSense program into their knol. If the author or group of authors will choose to include ads, Google will offer them a revenue share from the proceeds of those ad placements.

Readers will be able to rate a knol or review it; knols may include not only ads (at the discretion of the author), but also references and links to additional information, Google revealed. Knols will include text and also photos, and perhaps in a near future, other media content.

Knols will be ranked appropriately when they appear in Google search results, the company said, adding that they are “quite experienced with ranking web pages, and we feel confident that we will be up to the challenge. We are very excited by the potential to substantially increase the dissemination of knowledge.”

Google also announced an agreement with the New Yorker magazine, which will allow any author to add one cartoon per knol from the New Yorker’s cartoon repository. “Cartoons are an effective (and fun) way to make your point, even on the most serious topics,” Google said.

It all sounds good, but on a long term, one question appears: Will Knol manage to keep up with Wikipedia, and even better, end up as a source of information for Wikipedia articles, as Cedric DuPont, product manager for Knol, told Reuters?

Some believe that the prospect of financial gains will make articles on more popular content put articles on other subjects in a cone of shadow, and authors will be less encouraged to write on “unpopular” subjects.

On the other hand, others believe that a well-written article on a less popular subject could rise above more “popular” content, and why not, raise awareness on subjects that readers didn’t even know they could be interested in.