Google recently released a new browser plug-in called Google Sidewicki. This allows users to add and read comments on any webpage on the internet. This is installed together with Google Toolbar and works with both Internet Explorer and Firefox. Google said they are currently working on integrating this with Google Chrome and other browsers as well.
I’m not really a fan of toolbars, I think they’re just clutter on my browser. But this cool universal comment system on the web would probably be a good thing to have. This would be a good way to get info from other people about the reliability of the website and a good source for more information about the website as well. I just wish we could have this as a stand-alone tool though.
However, I believe this could also be prone to abuse as well. Uncontrolled comments from website might turn out to vandalism. Google already thought of this as well and they’ve worked out algorithms to display the most high-quality entries on top rather than the common recent-entry-on-top style. As per google..
We worked hard from the beginning to figure out which [entries] should appear on top and how to best order them. So instead of displaying the most recent entries first, we rank Sidewiki entries using an algorithm that promotes the most useful, high-quality entries. It takes into account feedback from you and other users, previous entries made by the same author and many other signals we developed.
This is a free download for Internet Explorer and Firefox. Get more info about Google Sidewicki from the official Google Blog.
