Review of Google Sidewiki

If you haven't given Google Sidewiki a try yet, I highly recommend it.

Quickly what it is... For quite some time people have been coming up with ways to annotate the web, sidewiki opens up a sidebar, and allows you to leave comments, and read comments left by other people. Really I have seen this type of implementation but their are a few differentiators that make it much better.

The Good
1. Google's ranking algorithm to put the best comments to the top.
- what makes a good comment or not ? The use of language, reputation and longevity of your profile. There are also voting options, a simple yes and no option, and somehow adds to the secret sauce
2. Its easy to use and unobtrusive. You just hide the sidebar, and when the color changes you know that there's comments on this page.
You're able to highlight text, and create a bookmark on the page, and comment on areas of text. When you click on the image next to your comment, it automatically jumps to that area of the page and highlights the text.
3. Blog integration. If there are no comments, it will suggest other articles sometimes, and it allows you to post your comments to your blog.
4. Allows owners of site to own the first comment.

The Bad
1. Forces you to install google toolbar. More of an annoyance.


So go and try it out.