Jeff Jarvis complained:
Google just introduced Sidewiki, which enables anyone to comment on a page using Google’s toolbar.
I see danger.
Google is trying to take interactivity away from the source and centralize it. This isn’t like Disqus, which enables me to add comment functionality on my blog. It takes comments away from my blog and puts them on Google. That sets up Google in channel conflict vs me. It robs my site of much of its value (if the real conversation about WWGD? had occurred on Google instead of at Buzzmachine, how does that help me?). On a practical level, only people who use the Google Toolbar will see the comments left using it and so it bifurcates the conversation and puts some of it behind a hedge. Ethically, this is like other services that tried to frame a source’s content or that tried to add advertising to a site...
Now, anything broadcast on the web can be easily hijacked. I've found some sites copy-and-pasted entire blog posts of mine and wrapped them in ads. I've also seen one site that automatically republishes MY ENTIRE BLOG - though there are no ads there, yet.
This is just how it goes AND I've been fully aware since day one.
Perhaps SideWiki could become a nuisance. Perhaps it could litter my blog with spam, Moronic vitriol, and whatnot.
BUT, on the plus side, it seems that I can wield it for my own purposes.
I think I might be able get my Captious comments re-appended to Greg Mankiw's tripe!
If y'all remember, after failing to *regulate civility* to his liking, he not only closed the comment section of his blog - he deleted the meticulous commentary of thousands upon thousands of his readers.
THEN, later on he took his censorship up a notch and removed all *Links To This Post*.
So when I get a chance, I'll test this SideWiki out on my old Harvard buddy....
My master Mankiw link is here.
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