Google has launched Knol, its user-generated online encyclopedia, which it announced in December but had kept under wraps in private testing.

Although its goal and approach are similar to Wikipedia's -- to tap the collective knowledge of Internet users within an encyclopedia format -- Knol is different in several ways.

Knol will encourage writers to use their real names and stand behind their articles, and will give them the possibility to generate income from their work via Google ads.

"Every knol will have an author, or group of authors, who put their name behind their content. It's their knol, their voice, their opinion. We expect that there will be multiple knols on the same subject, and we think that is good," wrote Knol product manager Cedric Dupont and software engineer Michael McNally in an official blog posting Wednesday.

Wikipedia, on the other hand, has a culture of anonymity in which contributors rarely use their real names, and no ads appear on the site.

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