Google Sidewiki
by Shiaw-Ling Lai
Think of it as comments-as-you go for the internet. Or instant reviews for every web page. Today, Google launched its new Sidewiki product, a web browser app that adds a sidebar review space to every web page so that users can comment on and offer up their knowledge and expertise regarding the content of the site.
In some senses, it’s like a more visceral and visible version of the comments section of news articles and blogs, but with an open login that will reach across multiple websites. Ben Parr of Mashable has described it as Google’s “stab at making web browsing social.” Currently, add-ons of the Sidewiki app are available for Internet Explorer and Firefox, with a Chrome on on the way.
On the back end, Sidewiki has a complex algorithm that will rank available comments and display them according to the most relevant first instead of the most recent — a system that sounds philosophically similar to the Google page rank system.
Here’s Google’s video explanation of how Sidewiki works:
Ultimately, the goal of all of this is intended to to help users browse and evaluate information ever more efficiently online. But as with every new medium of communication introduced to the internet, curiouser still might be how online marketeers and strategists will incorporate this new commenting ability into their viral and social marketing campaigns.
Additional links
++ Read it on the Google blog
++ Mashable Review
[reposted from lambodar.com]