Google Knol is a massive article base which users can search for information in. It is very similar to Wikipedia and many people consider it Google’s take on the Wikipedia service. Google Knol is currently in open beta and any one can contribute with their own knols, or articles. Google defines a knol as a unit of knowledge, which also applies to any articles submitted to Google Knol.

Perhaps the biggest distinguishing factor between Google Knol and sites like Wikipedia is that users who use Google Knol must sign in with their Google account and state their real names. If the user gives permission to Google, it will check the name information either by credit card, or phone. Google cites it’s reasoning for this in stating that, “knowing who wrote what will significantly help users make better use of web content.” Once a user has signed up and gone through the verification procedure, they can create new knols. As such, there can be many articles on the same topic, with each being written by a separate author. The author also maintains full control over his or her knol. They can choose to have their knols edited by the public, similar to Wikipedia, or they can choose to make them only editable by co-authors, or completely close them to anyone but themselves. Authors may also choose to incorporate ads from AdSense into their knols. As such, all knols are licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-3.0 license.

Google also has a content policy for knols, which describes topics which are unacceptable to add to the project. These topics include pornography, discriminatory content, violent content, and content which is designed to promote businesses and services solely for revenue generation purposes. Any reader with a Google account can rate, comment, and suggest changes which should be made to the knols.