Google Knol

Finally an official report came for Udi Manber, VP Engineering of Google of the Google Knol. The definition and overview of Knol clearly reveals that it will be a major competitor of Wikipedia. So Google is now on a clear cut war with Wikipedia.

Google's statement about a knol is
"A knol on a particular topic is meant to be the first thing someone who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read. The goal is for knols to cover all topics, from scientific concepts, to medical information, from geographical and historical, to entertainment, from product information, to how-to-fix-it instructions."

This is in no way different from a Wikipedia article. A Wikipedia article on a particular topic is the first thing someone who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read.

Even if Google does really want to come in this field, it should provide something which is different from wikipedia. There is simply no need of creating a parallel of Wikipedia with users getting confused where to look for the correct information.

But Google thinks it in a different way. As always, they have indicated it even in the official report.
"Competition of ideas is a good thing"
And sure it is... ;)