Google SideWiki Brings Comments to Everyone

Rophuine writes: "Google has launched a product called SideWiki. It takes the form of a plug-in to FireFox and Internet Explorer which allows users to "Mark Up" the web — add comments which can be seen by anyone else running SideWiki.

Is this a great new product which will bring new horizons to the internet? Or is this just another way for Google to know what sites we're visiting?"

No one uses it yet

[zvrk]

I just tried it today. I was thinking that it was around for a while - but no site has ANY comments in it. The worst part is that 'most active' contributors have 3-4 contributions.

Third Voice

[tepples]

You're probably thinking of Third Voice, an earlier, similar system that was ill received among webmasters, who likened users' annotations to graffiti.

Re:

[zvrk]

Nope, I actually tried SideWiki. It is part of the Google toolbar. And looking at their tour you can see CDC website - even on that site there are no SideWiki comments. I think this may have the same problem. Let's me pose few questions in these terms: 1. Why do you think that on shopping sites competitors would not post deals? 2. Why do you think that on political sites opponents would not try to create flame wars? And how to control that? Is there a way to refute information or to remove incorrect and