Following a restricted beta which began last December, Google has made its Wikipedia competitor Knol open for general use. While Knol borrows the general concept of "anyone can contribute" common to most wiki projects, it has a slight twist, as Google's software engineers explain:

With Knol, we are introducing a new method for authors to work together that we call "moderated collaboration." With this feature, any reader can make suggested edits to a knol which the author may then choose to accept, reject, or modify before these contributions become visible to the public. This allows authors to accept suggestions from everyone in the world while remaining in control of their content. After all, their name is associated with it!

Knol is free to use, requires a Google account to sign in. [Knol via Official Google Blog]

It's been years since we looked at a print edition of the Yellow Pages, but even the online version of the venerable business directory doesn't often attract our attention. Now the whole project has become more useful for a very simple reason: Sensis (the Telstra division that produces the Yellow Pages) has finally allowed Google's robots to index Yellow Pages content, meaning that everyone's favourite search engine now has access to Australian businesses which might otherwise never appear in online results. (The fact that it was ever blocked is frankly one of the weirdest Internet strategies imaginable, but that's another story.)
We're a tad sceptical that being in a Yellow Pages listing will result in businesses getting more visibility in Google search results, as Sensis claims (based on its existing high traffic). Nonetheless, knowing that non-tech-savvy businesses will now appear in search results is very useful. (Note: Existing Telstra mobile customers might want to stick with the Yellow site when on the road, if only because it's free to access on many Next G plans.)

Wired's How-To Wiki details how to flex your Google-fu to get Craigslist results from every Craigslist domain. In essence, the author does a Google site search of Craigslist.org and excludes pages with the word 'directory' to eliminate directory listings of names and phone numbers. The resulting query looks like:

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Editor: Being digital vagabonds without an Exchange server, we Lifehacker writers use online apps like Gmail and Google Calendar to get things done. But can an Outlook user make the switch without losing out? Guest contributor Jared Goralnick's here today to take a look.
Gmail launched in 2004 and has matured each year, but Microsoft Outlook (with Exchange) is still the most popular tool for accessing email. Comparing the two side by side, is it time to jump ship from either platform? Let's find out.

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Most everyone seems to love the iPhone, but the same can't be said for Apple's MobileMe service, which has performed so badly at launch that the company even issued an uncharacteristic apology. If MobileMe is driving you nuts, or you just don't fancy the annual service fee, blogger Beau Giles outlines how you can get similar results using NuevaSync and Google's mail service. The setup process looks a trifle fiddly, but there's step-by-step instructions, and it could be the solution to your mail, calendar and contact syncing woes -- and hey, it's free.
Using Google as a *free* MobileMe alternative (with push contacts & calendar) [Good News for People That Love Bad News]

If you're using the new iGoogle since we took you on a screenshot tour and showed you how to enable it, you've now got a robust, full screen version of Gmail in iGoogle. Back when we toured the new iGoogle, we told you that full screen gadgets were coming but not yet available. Now the Gmail gadget can go full screen, and it looks and feels very much like regular old Gmail. You can read, compose, and archive email just as you would from Gmail (no labelling yet). Likewise, RSS feeds now look and feel very much like Google Reader.

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Gmail appears to be slowly rolling out a new feature in their Contacts application that allows the user to selectively determine whether or not you want to automatically add everyone you email to your contact list. You're likely to send and receive a lot of email in the course of a day, but if you would prefer to keep the people in your contacts list limited only to the people you add—which means a much cleaner, more streamlined list of real contacts as opposed to all 5000 you've accumulated with the old system—looks like you can now do that through the My Contacts pane. Like most things Gmail-related, Google appears to be rolling this out slowly. If you're seeing this new functionality in your account (we aren't yet), let's hear more about it in the comments. Thanks Matthew!

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All things Google weblog Google Operating System details how to take full advantage of Gmail Superstars, a souped-up version of Gmail's standard yellow star available in previously mentioned Gmail Labs. When enabled, Gmail Superstars allows you to set the star to one of 12 different icons for more robust labelling via the previously single-function star icon. The really cool part? Gmail Superstars are incorporated into Gmail's advanced search, so you can use queries like:

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Google Notebook already offers quick-clipping tools for Firefox and Internet Explorer users (although the IE7 version requires adding the Google Toolbar), but the recent addition of a "Note This" bookmarklet closes the gap for anyone on Safari or another non-standard browser, or those who like their browsers lean and clean. Select text on a page and hit the bookmarklet to take a quick note, or hit it with nothing selected to create a link to the page. Opera users (insert sigh here) can only view notebooks, unfortunately, so this won't help them add notes. Other than that, Notebook fans will want to make room on their toolbar for it.

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We're pretty dedicated users of the email-based Google Alerts at Lifehacker HQ, but certain search terms have just far too many results to not turn into a kind of voluntary spam. FeedMySearch, a free Google-tweaking utility, turns new results from Google's many search areas—web, news, blogs, images, and more—into an RSS feed you can incorporate however you'd like. Some of these results, like Google News, have RSS feeds built in, but FeedMySearch's web search feeds are full-fledged with embedded video and pictures, and the site makes it easy to embed the feeds in your favourite start pages or bookmarking tools. FeedMySearch is free to use, no sign-up required.

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