"The web contains vast amounts of information, but not everything worth knowing is on the web. An enormous amount of information resides in people's heads: Millions of people know useful things and billions more could benefit from that knowledge," said Cedric Dupont, product manager, and Michael McNally, software engineer, in a statement on Google's official blog.

Articles, known as "knols," will be authored by individuals, but the revision process will be collaborative. Any reader may suggest changes to any knol, and edits will pass through a moderation process that Google calls "moderated collaboration" before the edits will be applied to the knol in question. Readers can also rate, write reviews of, and submit comments to knols.

Authors can choose to include Google AdSense ads in their knolls, and receive a share of the revenue. Google also has an agreement with the New Yorker to include one New Yorker cartoon in each knol, if the knol author chooses.

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales seemed unconcerned by any potential competition from Google's Knol, despite obvious similarities between Knol and Wikipedia.