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Google opened its website Knol to the public on Wednesday, allowing people to write about their areas of expertise under their bylines in a twist on encyclopedia Wikipedia, which allows anonymity. “We are deeply convinced that authorship — knowing who wrote what — helps readers trust the content,” said Cedric DuPont, product manager for Knol.

The name of the service is a play on an individual unit of knowledge, DuPont said, and entries on the public website, knol.google.com, are called “knols”.

Google conducted a limited test of the site beginning in December. Knol has publishing tools similar to single blog pages. But unlike blogs, Knol encourages writers to reduce what they know about a topic to a single page that is not chronologically updated.

Source: Reuters Knol Website

Why is Microsoft (MSFT) so concerned about Google? (GOOG) Lots of reasons, one of which is this: By this time next year, Google’s search business will be larger and more profitable than the most profitable and legendary monopoly in history–Microsoft Windows. (Just Google’s search business–that doesn’t even include AdSense).

Before we go to the numbers, a few important observations.

• Both products are natural monopolies. Google’s share of the search market should continue to approach Microsoft’s share of the operating system market (90%+)
• Both products are wildly, fantastically profitable. Microsoft’s Windows business has operating margins of 75%-plus. So does Google’s search business (once you factor out the billions Google is spending on products that produce zero revenue).
• Google natural monopoly is growing a lot faster than Microsoft’s. Google’s search business should be bigger than Microsoft’s Windows business by early next year (at the latest). Google is also growing faster than Microsoft’s two monopolies combined–Windows and Office. Google has yet to develop a second huge, fantastically profitable monopoly–the Office equivalent–but AdSense is getting there.

Read the full article Source: Silicon Alley Insider

Google’s Android is a software/platform which would run on different devices, from cell phones to pda’s.

The development team just released a video showcasing some of the features of the software. It really looks interesting.

If you want to read more about Android, here is the official site.