Google is developing a new website, a user-generated online encyclopedia, to rival Wikipedia, according to the U.S. media reports Monday.(File Photo)

    BEIJING, Dec. 17 (Xinhuanet) -- Google is developing a new website, a user-generated online encyclopedia, to rival Wikipedia, according to the U.S. media reports Monday.

    The announcement was made by Udi Manber, vice president of engineering, in a posting at Google's website.

    He said the Internet search powerhouse is inviting chosen people to test a free service dubbed "knol," standing for "a unit of knowledge," as an alternative to Wikipedia, which consistently ranks among the most visited websites in the world.

    "Our goal is to encourage people who know a particular subject to write an authoritative article about it," Manber wrote.

    "There are millions of people who possess useful knowledge that they would love to share, and there are billions of people who can benefit from it."

    He added: "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."

    Google's new project is different from Wikipedia's is that only the author of a "knol" page will be allowed to edit it. Other authors will have to set up competing pages under their own names.

    "Knol" is designed to overcome a major criticism of Wikipedia, which is open to abuse because it allows anybody to edit a page.

    However, for Google's new website, pictures of authors will be displayed on their knol web pages, according to a sample provided by Google.

    "We believe that knowing who wrote what will significantly help users make better use of web content," Manber wrote.

    "Books have authors' names right on the cover, news articles have bylines, scientific articles always have authors; but somehow the Web evolved without a strong standard to keep authors names highlighted."

    Furthermore, "knol" authors will have the option of letting Google post ads on their pages and sharing in the revenues.

    With luring Wikipedia users to its own community-created online encyclopedia, it promises to be another rich vein of ad income for the U.S. Internet search giant.

    More than a third of U.S. Internet users consult Wikipedia, according to findings released earlier this year by The Pew Internet and American Life Project. 　

    (Agencies)