Wikipedia finally has a potential rival. Google launched its previously announced Google Knol (short for Knowledge). Wikipedia is a great tool but has severe flaws which are inherent to its very nature and philosophy. Will Google overcome these difficulties, learning from Wikipedia's mistakes?

Google has thought out a different approach than that of the leading online encyclopedia. Each article, nicknamed "knol", will be written by a single author who will have entire control over it. However, different knols on the same subject will coexist, with a complex ranking system which will give prevalence of those considered more relevant. The rating system will apparently use both Google's automatic algorithms and a complex user-powered rating system.

In Wikipedia, anybody can change almost any article. This is both good and bad. People with mediocre knowledge and political agendas often write and modify articles on Wikipedia, leading to misinformation and censorship. Companies have been caught editing their own or their rivals' Wikipedia entries.

The problem is that there is no single unbiased article on a subject. For somebody to form a somewhat unbiased view of something using only second hand knowledge, it's best to consult different sources which are not interrelated. This is exactly Knol's strength and Wikipedia's weakness. Everybody is judgmental but each has a different way of judging things, and using several articles a clearer picture of the actual subject emerges in the reader's mind.

Also, authors will be able to enable or disable ads showing up on their knols. However, if they choose to enable advertising, Google will share a significant portion of the revenue they produce with the author. Anyone will be able to contribute, probably if their content is in conformity with certain guidelines.

Knol was unveiled in December 2007 by Google's Vice President of Engineering, Udi Manber.

Check out knol.google.com/k