Google has launched its own version of communally constructed online encyclopedia called Knol which is similar to Wikipedia. The Internet search giant went live late Wednesday with a free service dubbed "Knol," to indicate a unit of knowledge. Wikipedia permits any visitors make changes to their online pages, trusting that people with accurate information will correct misleading entries and errors. However Google allows authors to own their articles.

"Every knol will have an author, or group of authors, who put their name behind their content," Google product manager Cedric Dupont and software engineer Michael McNally said in a posting on the Google website. "It's their knol, their voice, their opinion. An enormous amount of information resides in peoples' heads: millions of people know useful things and billions more could benefit from that knowledge." People can get to post their pedigrees and pictures in knols and are able to authorize who can contribute to their postings.