Mountain View, Calif. - Following eight months of testing, Google (NASD: GOOG) said on Wednesday that it has officially launched its rival to Wikipedia, known as Knol.

The new site features articles about a range of specific topics written by self-proclaimed experts in the field.

"An enormous amount of information resides in people's heads," wrote the company in its official blog. "Knol will encourage these people to contribute their knowledge online and make it accessible to everyone."

Each entry will have an identified author (or group of authors). The site also introduces a collaborative feature that will allow readers to make suggested edits, which the original author may then choose to accept, reject or modify.

People also can submit comments, rate or write a review of a knol. Authors also can choose to run ads through Google's AdSense program, sharing the proceeds with the company.

In another aspect, Google has signed a deal with the New Yorker magazine, allowing authors to add one cartoon per entry from the publication's cartoon repository.

Related Links:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/knol-is-open-to-everyone.html

http://knol.google.com