Google Sidewiki: Equip Users To Add Their Comments On Any Webpage
Google launched Sidewiki, a sort of universal commenting system that allows users to comment on any page or a selected piece of text on the web. This new feature is being added to the Google Toolbar for Firefox and Internet Explorer (download here) while Chrome support is not yet ready . Once comments are posted to any web page using Sidewiki, those comments will be then visible to other toolbar owners visiting that page. Users also have the option of voting any comment which they like. The comments are not displayed based on the recent entries but are being ranked using an algorithm. The ranking algorithm takes into account various factors such as votes from other users, previous entry made by the same author with the aim to filter low quality comments. You can share your comments with your Twitter or Facebook accounts and can also embed videos into Sidewiki. Google’s Group Product Manager Caesar Sengupta tells paidContent
Company wants to help foster and create communities around different web pages and provide a functionality that is currently missing from most websites.
This is not the first time that someone is trying to develop similar kind of commenting system. There are companies who have tried (ThirdVoice) and others who are still trying (like Glue, DotSpots) in the similar space. But this time it is being done by Google, so the results may vary.
Snapshot via CrunchBase
Follow-Up
TechCrunch: Google Steps Where Many Have Stumbled:Sidewiki by Michael Arrington
GigaOm: Google Launches Sidewiki- More Like a Universal Commenting System by Om Malik
Techgeist: Google SideWiki Divorces Commenting From Publishers by Alex Wilhelm
ReadWriteWeb: Annotate the Web: Google Launches Sidewiki by Frederic Lardinois
paidContent: Google’s Latest Ambition: Universal Commenting System For The Web by Joseph Tartakoff
Image Credit: VentureBeat
amazing! The way Google innovates should make every company on the planet shy… these guys are simply awesome. Wrong to use in this context but “insanely great”
(Twitter: @ ksantani )
says:
@Liverpool Google just want to have their influence in each and every part of the web. They want people to get accumstomed to their services, and this can help them in longer run. But in the same time they are bringing in lot of innovation.