Google's new Sidewiki kicks up a storm

Google have recently launched a new tool which allows any user to add a comment to any page on your website. Yes, you heard that right… ANY user can comment on ANY page on your site and Google don’t give you an “off” button if you don’t like it.

It’s called Sidewiki and it is a plug-in for the Google Toolbar. On the Google blog, Sidewiki is promoted as a tool where all users can add “their knowledge along the way”. But it’s already clear that brands are not seeing things quite the same way…

Concern about Sidewiki

At Cubeworks, a worried client has already been in touch, concerned about the risk to their brand and the potential for damage to their reputation. The concerns are, for example, a competitor could add a comment saying that their products are better and advertise their web address or they could write something unjust about your business.

I hasten to add that the risks of abuse appear fairly low. Firstly users must be logged into a Google account to place a comment, so spammers are not going to be able to flood your site with comments. Added to which, if a competitor places an untrue or spammy comment then the “report abuse” feature should (but is not guaranteed to) help you see to that.

It’s also worth adding that the only people who can use Sidewiki at present are users with a Google account with the Google Toolbar installed and with the Sidewiki enabled. My suspicion is that in the short term not many users will comment and many fewer will notice that comments exist, particularly on websites that are not aimed at tech-savvy audiences. But that doesn’t mean it should be ignored.

It’s all kicked off!

What’s for sure, is that this has kicked off one hell of a debate on the Sidewiki help forum with 67 replies to Google’s “What do you think…?” thread at the time of writing.

There are clearly two polarised camps in this debate

1. Site/brand owners who hate the idea

2. People who think that such social media tools should be embraced

What is interesting is that there is currently no way of a site owner opting out of Sidewiki, and Google don’t appear to have any plans to provide an opt-out feature. As a result, one clever (yet presumably disgruntled) Google user has already released some open source code called Sidewiki Defeat which on the surface appears to render Sidewiki redundant. So people who are really concerned about Sidewiki’s impact can turn to this – for the time being at least.

What to do about Sidewiki?

Personally I feel organisations are best to work with Sidewiki not against it. Accepted, someone has created a temporary kill switch but, as a strategy, trying to fight the existence of social media tools (such as Sidewiki, Facebook, Twitter and the like) is going to become an increasingly huge uphill battle.

If your business is not perfect (whose business is?) then there is the chance of the odd poor review. But take the example of TripAdvisor reviews; if your business is generally faultless but gets one poor review, discerning potential customers have proven to be good at filtering those out in favour of the numerous positive reviews. Indeed a bad review adds balance and realism to the whole experience, which makes it all the more believable.

Of course, this means your business needs to be built on the solid foundations of honesty, great products and great customer service; that way the vast majority of people will be leaving positive comments about your organisation. If it isn’t then Sidewiki is going to make it even easier for people to find out.

What do you think of Google’s new Sidewiki feature? Are you a worried business? Are you planning to embrace Sidewiki and make it work for your organisation? I’d love to hear your comments.

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