While Wikipedia is clearly the dominant wiki on the web, there are some other worthy contenders. Just look at AboutUs. Basically, the site allows users to write up profiles on interesting websites (although, I couldn't locate BloggingStocks.com in its index). Currently, there are about 12 million pages.

It's a simple idea – but it's getting traction, with about 7 million unique visitors and 12 million page views per month.

In fact, the company recently raised $5 million. The lead investor is Voyager Capital.

Something else that's critical: AboutUs is generating profits. Yes, that's an oddity in the Web 2.0 world – especially since the website relies heavily on advertising revenues.

Then again, AboutUs has a stellar team. One of the most notable members is Ward Cunningham, who is the pioneer of wikis.

And, according to the AboutUs blog: "The Series A funding allows us to continue to grow and you along with us. We're excited about the possibilities for the future and can't wait for you to join us. Even now, we've got a number of things brewing at 'AboutUs Labs' that will knock your socks off."

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Streetsmart Guide to Short Selling: Techniques the Pros Use to Profit in Any Market. He is also the founder of BizEquity, a valuation website.

Late Thursday, Google mentioned yet another web service (although, this one could be a big one): Google Knol (which stands for a unit of knowledge).

Basically, this is a knowledge base – where experts write up articles and users have a chance to benefit from the wisdom. The system is currently under an invitation-only status.

With huge amounts of content across the web, it's often hard to find the quality stuff. Even if you go to places like Wikipedia, it's not easy to get a sense of the accuracy. Often, I use these sources as a starting point – not something that's definitive.

As expected, Google wants knols for all topics, which is certainly ambitious and will likely encounter problems along the way. But, it's certainly a worthy goal – and, in the end, could result in a valuable property.

More importantly, Google will share revenues with the experts (through advertising). This will certainly be a big differentiator, as other wikis, such as Wikinvest and Wikipedia, rely on authors who do it for fun.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

While there's been lots of buzz about Web 2.0, there's another interesting trend that's not getting as much noise: Enterprise 2.0. Basically, this is corporate software that uses social approaches, such as blogs, wikis, social networking and so on.

One of the leaders in the space is Socialtext, which snagged $9.5 million in venture capital this week. The investors include Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Omidyar Network, and SAP Ventures.

True, biggie software companies -- like IBM (NYSE: IBM) -- have been investing in Enterprise 2.0. But as with any trend, it is usually smaller firms that make the critical innovations.

This morning – 6:30 AM pacific – I talked to the CEO and co-founder of JotSpot, Joe Kraus. I think he hasn't had much time to sleep. You see, he just sold his company to Google , Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). In fact, he wrote about it on the Google blog.

Joe started his company about three years ago with a laser focus on developing a top-notch wiki product. Basically, a wiki allows for groups to collaborate on projects. In some cases, the projects can be enormous, such as with Wikipedia.

However, for the most part, wikis are still in the early stages, but with the Google deal, this should change quickly. Says Joe: "We wanted to bring wikis to the biggest audience possible."

Joe is an Internet veteran, having cofounded one of the early portals, Excite. He has taken his consumer knowledge and applied it to JotSpot; that is, the product is easy yet powerful.

It is no secret that Google is focusing much more on collaboration. There has been lots of evidence of this from things like Writely, Google Groups and the Google Spreadsheet.

I also think Google has ambitions for moving much more into the corporate space (but with a Web 2.0 approach.)

No doubt, in this deal, Google has validated the importance of wikis -- and other major companies, like Yahoo , Inc.(NASDAQ:YHOO) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) will likely respond. In other words, startup wiki companies like Socialtext, Near-Time and others may be buyout bait.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and operates InvestorOffering.com.