Mountain View, Calif. - Google (NASD: GOOG) announced this week that it is working on a Wikipedia-style online repository of user-submitted "knols," which the company said stands for "a unit of knowledge."

"Our goal is to encourage people who know a particular subject to write an authoritative article about it," Google vice president of engineering Udi Manber wrote in a post on the company's blog.

"There are millions of people who possess useful knowledge that they would love to share, and there are billions of people who can benefit from it."

Like the Wikipedia, where most any user can edit entries, Google said it will not edit or endorse any content on its own service -- instead trusting each author to stake his or her own reputation, and will allow authors to post a photo of themselves next to their articles.

Readers will be able to rate and comment on knols, while authors will be able to place ads on their knol pages, with Google saying it will provide "substantial revenue share."

Google said its "knol" tool is still in development, and this week invited a select group of people to try out the early version.

"Once testing is completed, participation in knols will be completely open, and we cannot expect that all of them will be of high quality," Manber added.

Related Links:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/encouraging-people-to-contribute.html