Here we Goooo (gle) again! Google just launched a new toolbar feature called SideWiki. You can find out all about it in Danny Sullivan’s extensive review on Search Engine Land. Saikat Basu wrote a good article on this as well. It has become a hot topic since the official launch. Even though it is still very early to predict SideWiki’s future, yet people are already divided over this project. You will have an idea about what people are thinking if you go through the comments on Jeff Jarvis’ blog post on this topic. Matt Cutts from Google also participated in the conversation.
Snapshot of Google SideWiki
Let me loosely categorize user opinions into three groups based on what I have read so far on different blogs. Some love the idea, some are absolutely horrified and hate it and some are kind of in the middle, meaning they are not sure what to make of it or they are just not going to let this bother them much. It all depends on who you are or who you ask. Everyone has their own reason to love it or hate it. I know Google spent lot of time and energy on this before releasing it and I like to believe that every possible effort was made to ensure its success. Google also says that the process they put in place is sufficient to prevent any potential abuse of the feature. But no matter what you think of SideWiki or whatever Google says, it all boils down to two facts. They are:
1. ANYONE can leave ANY comment on ANY site as long as he/she uses decent or proper language.
2. Site owner has no control over what is being said on their site.
Call me paranoid, but when I think of SideWiki, I think I belong to the “terrified” group. From a site owner’s perspective and what I understood so far, I personally think, in its current form, this feature is extremely vulnerable to abuse and spam. Speaking of spam, let’s not forget that spam has many forms and it has evolved over the years and it is not always so obvious at a first glance. Now, I will try to break it down for you and then maybe you can understand my serious concerns. To prove my point ill try to describe it in a fictional conversation. I will pretend to be the Anti-SideWiki, a website and a small business owner.
It goes something like this:
Pro-SW: What’s up Anti-SW? Did you hear about the new SideWiki feature? Its great isn’t it?
Anti-SW: Are you kidding me? I hate the idea!
Pro-SW: What you mean? It lets you view helpful information, get insights from experts and also you can see what others think of the website.
Anti-SW: Well, I already let my users and customers comment and leave feedback on my website. Why do I need additional comment system right next to my page?
Pro-SW: When you have a third party comment system that you cannot moderate, it seems more credible to users because everyone knows that you will only keep the positive comments on your own site and remove any negative comments. Not only that, now if there is scam website then people will know right away.
Anti-SW: yeah, but it also means if someone is spreading lies on SideWiki then I can hardly do anything about it. If it is on my site then I can remove the biased or untrue comments. As for scam website goes, isn’t it possible that a second scammer will come and say that this a scam site so please go to my site which will be another scam?
Pro-SW: Oh, don’t tell me people can’t spread lies about you or your company on different forums, review sites and everywhere else on the net. They probably already are saying all sorts on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter etc. You can’t do anything about it. So, why are you making it such a big deal?
Anti-SW: True, but it is one thing people complaining or lying about me on different sites and it’s another thing to have all the negative stuff all bunched right up there next to my page. That’s the first thing a new visitor will notice. It’s one thing, local news paper or radio stations spreading lies about me and it’s a different thing when 20 people standing in front of my store or office with big signs all the time day and night. How does it look then?
Pro-SW: Don’t worry, it’s not like that. Just because someone doesn’t like you that doesn’t mean they can just jump on to sidewiki and leave a comment like “you suck”! That type of spammy comments will not be shown. Also you have to have a Google profile for you to comment, so it’s not anonymous. Complex algorithm is used to determine if and what comments will be shown next to your website. It will depend on user’s profile reputation, profile age, number of comments the user left elsewhere and lot of other factors. Besides, this feature will not be available for each and every page anyways. You have to meet certain criteria for the SideWiki comment option to be available for your pages.
Anti-SW: You’re scaring me more now!! It’s good that this system will stop a spontaneous irritated user or a casual spammer but it can’t save me against someone who really wants to do harm to me or my business. When people figure out how to play the system then crooked online marketers will take this golden opportunity to create hundreds of fake Google profiles and will start to build them up or manipulate and may be will even start selling some of them on EBay. Remember when Gmail first started, people were selling invites and email addresses?
Just like shady SEO companies boost your ranking by linking to hundreds of their own websites under different IP/domains and other questionable methods. It will become one of their hot selling products. Then unethical site owners will be able to BUY fake positive comments from those crooked marketing companies or hire one to tarnish competitor’s image. Where is the insight in that?
And don’t you dare tell me that Google’s algorithm will stop all these! I can see how their algorithm stopped thousands of low quality websites that constantly rank way higher (through sneaky methods) than legitimate useful websites [sarcasm]. Possibilities are endless if someone really wants to harm your image. Few negative or false comments may hardly have any impact on an already established large corporation but handful of negative comments or lies could ruin a small start up or a small local business or site. Especially if all those questionable comments are displayed right next to the website.
Pro-SW: Calm down! Why are you getting so worked up about it? Google is not the first company to think of this idea; it has been tried and done before. Also not all Google projects are successful anyways.
Anti-SW: That’s exactly what I am scared of. Earlier attempts failed for lot of the reasons I mentioned. But this time around, what if the idea catches on? And what if Google starts to include the comments value in their existing search result algorithm somehow? That will add a whole new dimension to SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Not to mention, there are so many worse possibilities! So, what is the real cost of so called “insight”?
Pro-SW: Forget you Anti-SW!! Google does no evil!
Only time will tell what will happen to SideWiki. In the meantime, let me know where you stand.
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