- Google today is launching Google Sidewiki, a universal commenting system that will be available via Google Toolbar. The company said the following in an email explaining the feature:
Sidewiki enables users who have installed Google Toolbar to contribute information alongside any page on the web, inside of a simple sidebar UI. This information, which can include text entries, links, and embedded videos, will be ranked by quality and community ratings. For instance, on a site about a specific beach town, a user could add a relevant YouTube video showing local attractions. Once users opt in to the feature, they’ll be able to view annotations contributed by other users within a browser sidebar, and can choose to hide the sidebar at any time. Google Sidewiki also won’t change the appearance of any webpage – all Sidewiki entries will be displayed only in the sidebar.
- As Om and paidContent point out, Google Group product manager Caesar Sengupta, says that the company is looking to “help foster and create communities around different web pages” especially on sites that lack community features.
- This launch comes on the heels of DotSpots launching out of private beta last week; a company that enables anyone to update the news in real-time with dots: mini-blog posts, including videos, pictures, documents and links, that appear in context on all relevant news articles. Sound familiar? They showcased the product last year at TechCrunch 50 to a panel of judges including Google’s Marissa Mayer, who raved about the product. Well, I guess they liked it enough to base their whole toolbar around it.
- I agree that commenting on the web needs to evolve. I’m not sure that annotating pieces of text is the ultimate end all goal for the content consumer, but it’s a step in the right direction to bring a sense of community around all related content, not just individual communities on single web pages.