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Call it a unit of knowledge, but beware of calling it a 'knol', as Google has applied to trademark the term.

If approved, knol will join several other trademarked terms owned by Google. Along with the company's name, Google sought a few other trademarks this year.

Resource Shelf listed 'knol' and some other words to the trademark queue. These represent the search ad company's recent, publicly discussed initiatives, like the world of mobile phone software.

Google's trademark applications related to mobile include Android, Dalvik, and Open Handset Alliance. Android is the mobile application platform, while the Open Handset Alliance consists of those companies that have agreed to be part of Google's plans.

Dalvik presents a more interesting concept than just a virtual machine to execute files on Android. Apache developer Stefano Mazzocchi said in November 2007 that Dalvik offered Google a break from Sun's Java licensing schemes:

The trick is that Google doesn’t claim that Android is a Java platform, although it can run some programs written with the Java language and against some derived version of the Java class library.

Not only this allows Google to avoid having to battle thru the JCP for any change to the Java ME “standard” or tolerate Sun’s unique ability to veto any JCP change, but gives users a much more ‘fresh‘ and modern class library to play with...

Google makes Android and not only unlocks development abilities on the mobile phone but also unlocks millions of potential Java mobile programmers from Sun’s grip on it.

As a custom virtual machine, Dalvik does not interfere with the usual Java development for creating class and jar files. Dalvik runs these programs, as noted.

Where Dalvik should shine is with its minimal CPU requirement. Google needed a low-power consumption benefit for Android, in order to attract developers and hardware manufacturers to the platform.

When someone creates a knol about Dalvik, we'll look for two things. One: if someone from Google writes it. Two: if AdSense displays Sun or Java related ads in the knol (if ads are enabled for it, of course.)