In one case it's an industry leader going after an open source success; the other sees a start up taking on the global leader.

Let's start by taking a look at Knol, Google's attempt to unseat Wikipedia as the leading source for encyclopaedic-type information.

We first started hearing about Knol (a unit of knowledge) back in December 2007 and it was finally launched in beta in late July.

Knol pages are supposed to contain the kind of information that a person would want the very first time they Google the topic.

It has been described as a rival to Wikipedia but the Wikimedia Foundation that owns the free online encyclopedia welcomed Knol into the fray. 'The more good free content, the better for the world,' they said.

While Wikipedia articles are written collectively under a 'neutral point of view' policy, Knol highlights personal expertise by emphasizing authorship. But this description of how they two differ only scratches the surface.

The real difference will be the integrity of the content.

At Wikipedia, the content remains open for editing by the community.

So factual errors, misrepresentation, opinion and any attempts at 'spin' are usually quickly detected and made right.

The people who use Wikipedia keep it honest and therefore users can trust that the information is true, or at least that it represents the latest thinking on any one subject.

With Knol, the content is closed.

So once the author has posted some content, he is the only one who can edit it.

This may seem to be only a small difference, but in fact it's huge.

It invites opinion, commercial content and a whole range of agenda being published.

And actually that's ok too, but it's not an encyclopedia is it?

Is there room for a site like Knol in the online world? Absolutely.

But it's not a Wikipedia killer.

Cuil.com, the second new entry into the internet world is a new search engine, cuil.com (pronounced 'cool' and is the Gaelic word for 'wisdom').

It's been launched by some ex-Google types and purports to index three times as many websites as Google and ten times as many as Microsoft.

The creators say that instead of relying on popularity metrics, their engine searches for and ranks pages based on their content and relevance.

When Cuil finds a page with a keyword, it analyses the rest of the content, concepts and relationships to assign prominence in ranking.

So if you search for 'Isle of Man Hotel' in Cuil, top ranking goes to the Sefton while in Google, The Sefton is tenth, and almost gets pushed
off the front page.

Cuil's home page is, well, cool.

It's mostly black, has a lot of open space, and is even more minimalist than Google's.

There are no menu options for images, maps, news or shopping, but for those just looking for web results, it's got it well covered.
I first tried it out on launch day and had trouble...most of my searches came back 'unavailable'.

But that's forgivable when you consider that the whole world was giving it a spin on day one. Since then, whenever I've used it, it hasn't let me down.

However, there are few things that make you go hmmmmmmmmm.

Cuil claims to index a lot more content than competitors, but it showed 1,040 hits for 'Isle of Man Hotel' while Google turned up 18,500. Not that we have that many hotels here.

But the real question is 'Does Cuil have what it takes' to take on the pervasive Google?

It seems unlikely while Google has a broader range of features and most of the world's eyeballs.

But don't count Cuil out.

The internet is level playing field and it often doesn't take a lot to change things.

For instance, Cuil says that they do not collect any personally identifiable information and they do not keep users' IP addresses.

This is an issue that continues to plague Google.

All it takes is one high profile event and people will be flocking to alternatives in droves.

It doesn't seem so long ago that we were all using Lycos, Alta Vista and Ask Jeeves.

Where are they now?


>>Sherrilynne Starkie is the managing partner of Strive Public Relations, a strategic communications consultancy serving the Isle of Man. Visit her business blog, Strive Notes for frequent updates www.strivepr.com/notes or follow her on twitter.com/sherrilynne