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.