Google Sidewiki: Allow Others to Post Comments on Your Web Site

by | Oct 20, 2009

Another new tool that needs to be on your radar.

I don’t know if the world is ready for this, but it’s here and it’s from Google, so you know that there’s been a lot of thought behind it.

Google Sidewiki allows you to contribute helpful information next to any Web page or even critical information to a competitor’s Web site. Google Sidewiki appears as a browser sidebar, where you can read and write entries along the side of the page. Google uses an algorithm to display the most relevant and helpful posts up top.

BlueVolt Sidewiki

Click for detailed view

The key benefits:

  • You can publish helpful information about any Web page from any browser
  • Read insights in context from Sidewiki entries added by others
  • Share Sidewiki entries through Blogger, Facebook, Twitter and Google profiles

Google could eventually put ads in the Sidewiki space – monetizing another company’s content.

As Jeremiah Owyang points out in a recent post, Google’s Sidewiki Shifts Power To Consumers – Away From Corporate Websites

“There’s nothing stopping them from allowing advertisers to put ads on Sidewiki as “sponsored” information. For example, Coke could run their latest ads on the Pepsi.com Sidewiki area. HP could run ads on the Dell.com site. This ‘already’ happens in the search engine result pages on Google.com, why not in Sidewiki?”

I agree with Jason Falls‘ assessment of Sidewiki, “It will force every company in the world with a Web site to get hip to social media and do it now.”

If you’re ready to start exploring the Web with Google Sidewiki, visit google.com/sidewiki to download Google Toolbar with Sidewiki and contribute your own entries alongside pages on the Web.

So what are your thoughts on this new tool?

You might find this post by my mentor, Michael Gass, useful, How to keep up with social media.

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