On the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Google has unleashed a revolution wrapped in a velvet glove that could upend all social media competitors and radically change the game in Google's favor.
Google Sidewiki is a persistent social media space adjacent to every web site. Embedded in the Google Toolbar it pops us with each site you visit. So far its compatible with IE and Firefox. Chrome access is exected soon.
Assessing the new offering Josh Bernoff in his Groundswell blog called it "a land grab." But this is way too mild a caution. Sidewiki is as ingenious as it is insidious. It's as if the masses in Mountain View set out to launch a revolutionary disruptor that would roll up the best aspects of their competitors' functionality into a tool that not only would grow virally but would force site owners to further connect and kow-tow to Google. It's a not-so-naked play for social media and maybe even Web domination.
How and why can they do it? As Chairman Mao said, "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."
Allow me to illuminate the plan as I understand it.
I. SideWiki splits the browser screen and sets up a running commentary field on the left side of your screen. That's right, the primary side you look to for navigation and the key junction in the "F" scanning pattern we all use when viewing Web sites. They set up shop on your most desirable real estate.
II. It's embedded in the Google Toolbar which makes it easy to download and gives Google a launch pad by using their installed base of users. Think of them as a network in waiting of "fellow travelers" ready to embrace and advocate the revolution.
The pitch is not only benign but helpful. "What if everyone, from a local expert to a renowned doctor had an easy way of sharing their insights with you about any page on the web? What if you could add your own insights for others who are passing through, " write VP Product Management Sundar Pichai and Engineering Lead Michal Cierniak on the Google Blog. Couched in social media-friendly language, its something consumers are doing and expect. It feels like the natural evolution of things; the onward march of civilization gently goosed by Google.
But consider the implications.
III. Google sets up shop next to your web site with the intention of participating in the content and conversation. You don't get a vote. In fact, they probably already have more viewers and advocates than you'll ever have. Your new partner offers your visitors the opportunity to post comments on a wall-like device (Facebook) or instantly and viscerally react (Twitter) and these comments or reactions are broadcast in real time to other sites featuring similar or relevant content (RSS). The comments could include additions, amplifications and corrections (Wikipedia), rankings or ratings (Zagat, Judy's List), references or bookmarks (Digg, StumbleUpon) or denunciations, attacks and the ever popular "you suck" messages.
Ideally this a free gift without purchase which benefits you greatly. Its an all-in-one social media tool that vaults you from worst to first in the social media competition because in one swoop it can be a listening device, a customer service tool, and customer relationship management tool, a community or a common and searchable storage tool for your content and related content. The built-in inference is --- Google gives you their best stuff for free to help your business.
Not only will Google give you these goodies, it will use "an algorithm that promotes the most useful, high quality entries" to insure relevance and viewer interest. They are applying a variation on the page rank algorithm to the comments on or about your site. So now you are being ranked by your participating customers and prospects and by Google.
You have to do macro and micro SEO to manage or impact the conversation about you on your site. Google has inserted itself strongly and seamlessly into your business overnight. God help you if you are deemed a "capitalist roader" or an "unrepentant bourgeoisie."
IV. But put away that paranoia. You can claim back your own Sidewiki space, if you validate your site ownership using Google's Webmaster Tools, download the Google Toolbar and then publish the first listing to address your site visitors on their new turf. It sounds benign. As if Sundar and Michal are saying, "No biggie. All you have to do is get our stuff and you can play with us too."
But the deeper you go into Google's technology, the greater the chance you can influence or blunt the impact of their technology on your site and your business. You're in their clutches whether you've opted in or not. In this spiraling scenario, either you're red or dead.
The next step in a year or two, I predict, will be be sell you space, rankings and the option to intervene in the content of the Sidewiki accompanying your site. As Lenin wrote, "ultimately we'll sell the capitalists the rope that we'll hang them with." So the circle will be complete. Google will rule.
As a plan for social media revolution and domination it is technically inspired, competitively targeted, ultimately scary that requires immediate attention.
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