Laurie Sullivan, reporting at Online Media Daily posts this amusing item about Google’s unintentional creation of what sounds to me like an Internet graffiti tool:
The Internet has a secret society. Anyone can join. It supports hidden messages. Those who want to belong need only download and install a special toolbar from Google that works in either Firefox or Microsoft Explorer (IE).
The toolbar, called Sidewiki, which launched in September, provides a venue for venting and posting derogatory comments on virtually any Web site that only those who install the toolbar can read. And although many realize that Google never intended that the toolbar be used for evil, some believe the Mountain View, Calif. company’s innovation could create a nightmare for marketers and Web site owners if they choose not to download and install the tool.
iCyte CEO Stephen Foley says it’s like painting on someone’s front door. The homeowner cannot do anything to prevent the damage, but uses their marketing dollars and time to clean up the mess. “Some might ask, well, can’t we just have transparency?” he says. “In this case, transparency has a deeper meaning. It means you have to declare your position. There are so many ways people can misuse this tool.”
Ya think? It seems preposterous that Google’s normally crack team of developers would not realize that they were unleashing a new gadget with the potential to turn the entire Internet into a widespread version of anonymous posting site 4chan, often referred to as the Internet’s collective id.
Examples abound of Sidewiki misuse. On the Go Israel website, someone using Google Sidewiki posted, “Yes, you too can join a country that has the highest abduction rate of female sex slaves in the world. Mossad doesn’t care so why should you! Regular Jews lived in peace with their Muslim friends until the Ashkenazi Zionist arrived.”
Just wait until the trolls at Free Republic get wind of this! Yikes!
Google gives participating sites the option to place their own “official” post on top of the public remarks, and offers a ranking system (i.e. voting) that pushes the cream to the top and theoretically allows the community to flag pornographic, disrespectful or potentially libelous posts. That’s the theory, at least…
Foley doesn’t believe that’s enough. He wrote a post in Google Sidewiki on Microsoft’s Web site titled “Has Google Started a War?” that discusses the ramifications of competitors taking swipes at each other’s Web sites, fundamentalists damning each other, and jilted lovers making their notes on the senior partners profile. “Oh, and do you think voting this down will help?” he writes. “We will just all head to the last Sidewiki to see where the dirt is. I am sorry Google but you are on a course of self destruct on this one.”
Today, Foley’s post ranks No. 24 with the highest positive score, but yesterday it ranked No. 1.
Foley’s post on Microsoft was just the beginning. Now he wants Google to change its policy and provide opt-in/opt-out features. It would allow owners to block anyone from posting comments on their Web site. So, he’s building a Web site set to launch at the end of the month. It will contain a petition asking the search engine to reorganize Sidewiki and make it an opt-in process.
Sounds like a plan, Google. A good one.
Cross posting this from Brand X