There is a lot of buzz today about Google’s new SideWiki tool bar and to my shock and awe, webmasters are decidedly furious about it. SideWiki, basically allows those who download the tool to potentially improve their web experience by getting other reader’s opinions about any particular web page.
It is all user driven in a social media way, because previous visitors to a site can leave a comment concerning the content of the given page. These comments can be seen by expanding a “Side” window in their browser and then reading what others think. Most early thoughts from fellow webmasters about this product are irrationally leaning to feeling of invasion on their intellectual property. They are failing to look at the potential of this and have not yet grasped the power of embracing social media, whatsoever.
In spite of their unproductive fear, if you want to try this service you will need a Google gmail account to participate in SideWiki and your comments are also posted on your profile, which in essence will keep SPAM to a minimum as the community of users will identify such losers rather quickly and have them and their comments deleted.
Here is the thing though, if your website starts getting a lot of comments via anything social media, it gets traffic. That also usually results in link reference, and in turn, search engine performance.
Now, because SideWiki as ALL about Google integration, the real question is “How can SideWiki NOT help your search rankings.” I think think it’s rather clear SideWiki can help and I will be exploring those strategies in the coming months as this tool gets widely adopted.
Marty Smith