Thoughts on how to improve Google Sidewiki
Sidewiki has already made a splash… although adoption is fairly minimal, the blogosphere is already starting to buzz about it.
This post isn’t intended to spark a discussion about whether this is brandjacking on the part of Google or generally fair to site owners. There are plenty of other places for that.
I would, however, like to offer a couple of suggestions that I think would make Sidewiki a more useful tool and perhaps help to quiet the storm that’s brewing online.
For one, I don’t like how all the comments are presented in descending order, based on time/date added. There is one exception that allows site owners to keep their comments at the top of the wiki, however for the most part, Sidewiki’s look like a jumbled mess of disjointed thoughts, NOT a conversation. It seems as though threading would make sense here. Suppose I am the owner of a site selling apples and someone complains, via Sidewiki, that my apples suck. This comment is now attached to my site. Shouldn’t I, as the site owner, be allowed to respond to the comment and have my response physically positioned next to the original comment. If my response documents me trying to save the relationship by making it right, shouldn’t that be made apparent to the reader? On the flip side, if I tell you to go to hell because you obviously don’t know the first thing about apples, shouldn’t that also be apparent as well? Isn’t that type of “conversation” exactly what makes social media so powerful?
I’ve included a little mock up of a Sidewiki “thread” that shows a response. Notice that the site owner is visually distinct from other commenters.
In summary, maybe Sidewiki should become more of a Sideforum.
Posted by Jeremy Hilton on Oct. 06, 2009