Google Sidewiki: Turning the Web into Its Own Social Network

Last September, Google announced “Sidewiki”, a feature of Firefox and IE that allows anyone to contribute “helpful” information next to any webpage. The latest buzz around Sidewiki concerns Reframe It, a start-up company which recently claimed that Sidewiki emulates Reframe It’s own web annotation software, right down to the icons.

Although it’s unlikely that Reframe It will sue Google (its own CEO Bobby Fishkin said himself that his team “doesn’t need the distraction”), the news points to the increasingly competitive nature of web annotation.  And the entry of Google’s SideWiki completely changes the game.

Unlike other companies, Google offers an API for Sidewiki which gives developers the ability to access comments for their own sites. And once SideWiki is integrated with Google’s Chrome Web browser, it will become visible to a relatively large audience of users. Pair that with integration into existing technologies like GMail, Google will have done something extraordinary: it will have turned the web into its own social network. And the impact for anyone who runs a website, particularly corporations, is far reaching.

Jeremiah Owyang recently wrote how Sidewiki shifts control over corporate websites to the consumer:

Every webpage on your corporate website, intranet, and extranet are now social. Anyone who accesses these features can now rely on their friends or those who contribute to get additional information. Competitors can link to their competing product, consumers can rate or discuss the positive and negative experiences with your company or product.

Mark Borkowski added to this in yesterday’s Guardian:

In time, this tool will significantly change the way brands strategise, think and exist. SideWiki is going to challenge PR by providing the masses with the tool for the ultimate expression of people power, something uncontainable that will need constant monitoring.

The implications are a little scary, and Reframe It isn’t the only company in a huff. Marketer Sylvie Fortin fumes “Goo­gle not only enjoys 90% mar­ket share of all search engine traf­fic but also they now con­trol over 90% of YOUR cus­to­mers, YOUR traf­fic, YOUR ad space, and YOUR money.” And we can’t help but wonder how Google will use the data it gathers from these comments.

But I would argue that it’s better to stop worrying and start strategizing. There’s no avoiding the future of the social web, and Sidewiki is just more evidence that companies had better start developing a social strategy now. As Borkowski puts it, “SideWiki is a seminal moment”:

Ad agencies once proactively shaped vision but now PR is demonstrably just as capable at understanding and cultivating future thinking, if not more so. PR has always engaged in a two-way conversation and should be capitalising on this to earn its clients’ trust. SideWiki is a call to arms – there is no excuse for complacency, as failure in today’s landscape is public, searchable and enduring.

Read more:

• Google’s SideWiki Shifts Power to Consumers – Away from Corporate Websites [Jeremiah Owyang]
• SideWiki changes everything [The Guardian]
• Did Google Steal Sidewiki From a Startup? [ReadWriteWeb]

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