Knol from Google is a new wiki-ish knowledge base. Unlike WikiPedia (the comparison is unavoidable), a Knol article has a single author or group of authors that determine the level of community collaboration he or she wishes to allow. Interestingly, multiple articles can exist on the same topic.

The content is pretty sparse right now — leaning heavily towards medical articles. However, with Google’s backing, content growth should be rapid.

Another high-profile reference site should compliment WikiPedia, while the different format and methodology of Knol will provide some much needed checks and balances for us knowledge consumers. Knol is a site to watch.