Why Google Sidewiki is Evil
I was trying to leave a comment on a Search Engine Land post about Google’s new Sidewiki. Google’s Sidewiki wouldn’t let me post my comment, because Google has flagged my Google profile and banned it for some unknown reason. (It happened when I tried to link my Flickr photos to my Google profile.) I’ve been trying to get my Google profile reinstated for months, but their link to request a manual review appears broken — but that is another story.
Here are the comments that I wanted to leave on search engine land:
Sidiwiki will steal content (comments) from websites. For example, I’m leaving a comment here [on Google Sidewiki], not on searchengineland.com. Why login to searchengineland.com (or even bother creating an account if I can just post it on Google Sidewiki?
Sidewiki could eventually kill review websites. Google will control and own the valuable reviews, not the websites. Google Sidewiki will steal your blog’s comments. It will also allow competitors to post false comments about you and there won’t be anyone you can contact to get the comments removed. IMHO, if you use Sidewiki, you are going to kill your blogs and websites down the road.
This is my first and last Sidewiki comment. Google is taking an open system (the WWW) and attempting to put a proprietary system on top of it. Google should stick to search, not content. Google should not control search AND content.
If somebody wanted to maliciously write bad things about my websites on Sidewiki, I wouldn’t even be able to respond because Google has banned my Google profile.
If Google Sitewiki takes off, say goodbye to blog comments and review websites. Google will own the content (comments, reviews) not the websites anymore.
One could make the same argument about comment websites like disqus.com, but the difference is, I have a choice not to use disqus — I don’t have a choice not to use Google Sidewiki for my website comments and reviews.
I wanted to post this on Twitter, but there wasn’t enough room. Comments aren’t allowed here on Tumblr, but if you want to send me feedback, my email address is here.
