Google’s Sidewiki has a sting in the tail « Richard Stacy @ Stacy Consulting
A few days after the announcement of Google’s new Sidewiki website commenting system, commentators are somewhat cynical about Google’s intentions, even perennial fan Jeff Jarvis thinks this addition could end up being an own-goal for Google, Richard Stacy writes:
A couple of days ago Google announced something very interesting – Sidewiki. This creates an overlay on any website / url allowing a form of commenting and rating. Because this is linked to the browser, the site owners themselves have no say here – you can’t opt-in or opt-out. At one level this could be a move which forces every website into the social media space – whether they like it or not.
Powerful stuff – so I signed-up and at that point realised the sting in the tail. In order to work, your browser has to send Google details of your browsing. This gives Google the information it has been craving for a long time, largely without success thus far – identifiable data about individuals’ behaviour, not just anonymous links that come into a website.
via Google’s Sidewiki has a sting in the tail « Richard Stacy @ Stacy Consulting.