The Web Just Got a LOT More Social

Google has launched a new service, titled Sidewiki, that allows anyone to add comments or annotations to any Web site. These comments can then be read by others visiting the site. The visibility of comments, however, depends on the individual’s Google ranking. (Did you know you had one?)

“[Sidewiki] uses a complex ranking algorithm to evaluate the quality of comments using “what we know about the author, and user-contributed signals such as voting and flagging.” Only highly rated comments will be shown. Google said it spent most of its engineering effort on the ranking algorithm.”

Sidewiki isn’t the first application to do this. But, coming from Google, it’s certain to gain wide adoption. (RN)

Google Unveils Tool to Annotate Web Sites | The New York Times | Miguel Helft | 23 September 2009