Wikipedia, the user-edited encyclopedia that popularized the phrase “citation needed,” is getting a little competition. Last Wednesday, Google officially launched Knol, its new collaborative information resource. Unlike Wikipedia, which allows any user to edit the articles at will, all of the articles in Knol will be overseen by a group of authors. Before an edit actually appears in the article, it must first be approved by the authors. We don’t yet know how users will take to the so-called “moderated” editing. At this point (and admittedly, it is rather early), it isn’t looking good. Knol doesn’t really have much in terms of articles. A search for SEO, for example yielded one article - a list of SEO extensions for Firefox. Helpful for people who know what search engine optimization is, but will leave “SEO newbies” in the dark. We are currently running an in-house experiment involving both Wikipedia and Knol. When we know something, so will you.

In other Google news, the company has recently announced the addition of voice recognition for YouTube video searches. Using a new iGoogle applet called the “Google Election Video Search Gadget,” users will now be able to search for a video based upon a word or phrase spoken in the video. As the name implies, only a few “specially chosen” political videos are equipped to handle this special feature. While it is interesting, I honestly don’t think that this feature will see a full-scale rollout. Political videos are one thing, but “normal” videos are quite another. Can you really see someone combing through, say, a professional wrestling match to document the number of times the announcer says “Bryan Danielson” or “submission hold?” I don’t think so.

Elsewhere, Digg founder Kevin Rose announced a new partnership with Facebook Thursday. Called “Facebook Connect,” the new service will allow Facebook users to become registered Digg users quickly and easily. From there, users will be able to share and comment on Digg to their heart’s content. Facebook users will also have the ability to post their Digg content into their own Mini-Feeds. Facebook Connect should be up and running soon.

Switching gears completely for a second, Zimbra is an easy to use offline email application that has many people in the tech world taking note. In addition to accessing their email accounts, users can do everything from editing documents to importing calendar entries from iCal to viewing addresses with Yahoo Maps. Zimbra is currently available for Windows, Linux, and Mac. And it’s also the email client of choice for all of us at StomperNet.

Despite what Doc Brown told us in “Back to the Future,” there is still no way to travel to the future. Your Tweets, however…well, that’s a different story. With TweetLater, you can schedule to send your Tweets at a later time. You can fool your friends, send “helpful reminder” messages to yourself, or even automate “good morning” messages for your followers. The possibilities are nearly endless, and you don’t need 1.21 gigawatts to do it.