Google's Sidewiki: The Only Thing to Fear Is...Not Much?

Proving once again that it is the Santa Claus of the Internet, Google last week announced yet another free toy: Google Sidewiki. Sidewiki is an addition to the Google Toolbar (so far only for Firefox and Internet Explorer) that allows anyone to leave comments and links on any web page anywhere on the Internet. The comments appear in a left-hand slide out that can be opened and shut either from the toolbar or by a small handle icon that appears on pages when you have the toolbar active. This video shows it in action:

This morning Sean Carton of ClikZ ruminated over the possibilities and pitfalls of Sidewiki for businesses and marketers. On the fear side, Carton asserts that this is one more giant leap toward complete loss of control by marketers over their message. That has certainly been true for some time now; do something that pisses off consumers and it will be all over social media, blogs, forums, and product review sites. Sidewiki significantly ups the ante, however, in that now those comments can appear right on your own web site, and there is nothing you can do to stop or block them. (Actually, that's not completely true. One commentor on Carton's post said that he had successfully used an SSL certificate to block Sidewiki. This has some backfire potential, however, as a Sidewiki user visiting a site so blocked may have suspicions about what the site is trying to hide.)

Two things occur to me that are not brought up in Carton's post:

1. It is not yet clear how widespread Sidewiki usage will be. How many people will actually bother to install it (and have to take on the Google Toolbar if they don't already have it)? And among those who do install it, how many will form the habit of using it and checking it regularly? I'm a Google toy addict who installed Sidewiki the moment I heard about it, but even I forget about it most of the time I'm surfing.
2. Marketers who have already gotten over the fact that you can't hide anymore--and better yet have embraced the idea--should welcome whatever community does end up using Sidewiki with open arms, viewing this as one more channel for valuable listening and interaction. Google has put in place some safeguards to try to minimize spamming and abuse (comments can be voted up and down, and there is an easy link to report abuse), but it remains to be seen how effective they will be.

Finally, here's an example of a Sidewiki post I just did. Recently my family enjoyed a wonderful weekend on Bald Head Island off the coast of North Carolina. While there I capture a number of videos of the island's gorgeous sights with my iPhone and uploaded them to YouTube. I was able to embed one of these YouTube videos (of pelicans flying over the surf) as a Sidewiki at the home page of BaldHeadIsland.com, the web site of the island's prime vacation home developer. If you have Sidewiki installed, go to BaldHeadIsland.com and view my brief video.

In fact, I love Bald Head Island and its scenic beauty so much, I'll even share my video with you if you don't want to install Sidewiki. Here you go:

Update on SEC's Bad Call

RE: My post yesterday "The SEC Makes One Hell of a Bad Call"

The New York Times reports today that the SEC has clarified their rule. Turns out they weren't really after Joe Bleachersitter sending his blurry phone cam picture of pinpoint-sized outfielders to his Facebook page. The real targets of their rule, they say, are the bloggers and web site owners who capture video, images, and descriptions of the games and then post them on their ad-supported or subscription-based sites. In other words, people who are making money off what the SEC and its schools seek to (exclusively) turn to profit. And it's not just the lucrative TV contracts that are at stake; they also worry about losing their monopoly on game and season highlight reels through DVD sales.

All ethical or legal considerations aside (such as whether it is right for sports leagues to maintain a monopoly over images and descriptions of their games), I'm still left wondering if the bad feeling raised by such ultimately unenforceable policies will end up being a bigger loss for the SEC than any actual dig into revenues by bloggers and fan site owners (paging the RIAA).

Google Profiles and Reputation Management - Part Two

In Google Profiles and Reputation Management - Part 1, I made a case for why building a Google Profile should be a central part of establishing a positive online presence (i.e. "reputation management"). Today let's look at a second, but probably equally worthwhile, benefit of Google Profiles: free PageRank "juice" to your sites.

Possibly as an incentive to get you to create a Google Profile, Google gives you a free gift for putting links on your profile: the links are NOT no follow. This means that as profiles gain PageRank themselves (and I believe they will), they will pass along some of that ranking power to whatever you link from your Profile page.

How best to take advantage of this? Use some of the "bio" portion of the Profile to talk about your web site(s), your company, what your company does or services you provide, etc. Using the little chain link button on the bio editing window, you can make these links to relevant pages on sites you or your company control. Be sure to make the linking text relevant to the page content!

Google Profiles and Reputation Management - Part 1

A few days ago I posted some suggestions about using social media sites to "ace" the front page of Google (fill the first page of Google's search results for your name with links to sites and content that you control). Let's review the value of doing this (aside from the obvious ego stroke!):

1. Create a positive impression on potential clients and/or employers. It is very common these days that people who are considering doing business with you (or hiring you) will Google your name to see what comes up. If you are involved in the marketing or advertising fields, the impression such a presence makes is worth even more than usual.

2. Force down negative links. If you are "out there" -- either because you are well known and/or you participate actively in social media, blogs, forums, etc. on the Internet-- sooner or later someone will write something negative about you. If the attack shows up high in Google results, the only thing you can do about it is bury it by creating positive links and getting them to rank higher than the negative post.

3. Create linking "juice" that can have a positive effect on other sites you control on the web.

One relatively new tool that should not be ignored in this effort has been provided by Google itself: Google Profiles. Google Profiles allows you to create a "one stop" picture of yourself and your online connections. You can easily post as much or as little information about yourself as you like. Additionally, this web app makes it super easy to add any or all of your social web sites.

Google has a high incentive to incentivize you to create a profile. Many are predicting that Twitter and Facebook will become the first real challenges to Google's stranglehold on the search market. Facebook in particular is actively pursuing the creation of Google-killing search functionality. The advantage that sites like Facebook and Twitter are banking on is that they are able to collect very personalized data tied directly to individuals, whereas Google's search data is more aggregation and generalization. Facebook's creators believe that in the years to come people will value the ability to find information, get recommendations, etc. in the same way they've always done, by querying their friends and acquaintances. And then, of course, sites that facilitate that will be able to present ads to users that are very tightly targeted.

Google gives every sign that they think there is something to that challenge, and Google Profiles is one of its first attempts to fire back. But because they are already behind in the game, Google has to hold out some kind of carrot to get people to create these profiles. So far, the main incentives seem to be:

1. Having a one-stop "business card on the web" that gives people searching for you all the ways to contact you, as well as where to find you on the web.

2. Rewarding profile participants with Google ranking "juice" that feeds back to their linked sites.

Tomorrow I'll post about how best to optimize your Google Profile to get the biggest Google bang from #2 above.