• TechCrunch, Monday, December 17, 2007 11:03 AM

For years, Google has frustratingly watched Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, become one of the top destinations of its search traffic. Google would kill to supply ads to Wikipedia, but the stubborn non-profit has resisted any temptation to sell ads on its pages. The possibility of a partnership shot down, it makes for Google to launch a direct competitor, which is exactly Knol is.

Given the pressure of Web giant's enormous public valuation, the idea of Google hosting a knowledge base shouldn't come as much of a surprise. Google plans to lure authors and editors from Wikipedia by promising a cut of ad revenue, thus expanding Google's inventory. Some worry about a conflict of interest, given that Google is introducing a revenue-generating content destination that will be indexed by its crawlers. The search giant maintains that Knol will be treated like other Web sites, but no one will be auditing Google to confirm this.

For its part, Wikipedia is also moving into Google's territory. The non-profit's parent, WikiMedia, this month will launch Wikia, a direct competitor to Google Search.

Read the whole story at TechCrunch »