Google unveils Sidewiki, a grand plan to annotate the Web

Google unveiled a project called Sidewiki, a browser feature that allows anyone to comment and annotate any website using a plug-in for the Google Toolbar.

Available for download now, the tool allows users to post comments and information on a website which can then be easily shared on sites such as Twitter and Facebook. The team behind the project at Google have worked hard on an algorithm that "ranks" comments, which places the higher quality annotations at the top of the list rather than the most recent entry. "[The algorithm] takes into account feedback from you and other users, previous entries made by the same author and many other signals we developed" Sundar Pichai, Vice President of Product Management and Michal Cierniak, Engineering Lead for Google Sidewiki said. Currently, Sidewiki only works with the Google Toolbar which runs on Internet Explorer 6+ and Firefox 2+, but a version for Google's own browser, Chrome, is in the works. Other firms such as Blerp have tried to offer similar capabilities but none have yet succeeded in attracting a large contributor base.