Today Google finally released their version (expanded, enhanced, better, Googlilized- you get the picture) of Wikipedia called Knol.  What is Knol exactly?

Knol is a Google project which includes single author articles on topics ranging from “scientific concepts, to medical information, from geographical and historical, to entertainment, from product information, to how-to-fix-it instructions”, according to Google. It was announced on December 13, 2007, and was opened in beta to the public today, July 23, 2008. Knol pages are “meant to be the first thing someone who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read”, according to Udi Manber, a Vice President of Engineering at Google. The term knol, named after a “unit of knowledge”, refers to both the project and an article in the project. Several experts see Knol as Google’s attempt to compete with Wikipedia.

Right now (since it was just released today) there is indeed speculation on how well it will be received and how well these free user-based articles will rank in Google’s search results. You can be sure that we will be watching this closely.