Google has released the new toolbar with SideWiki. I guess that confirms it. No one at big G is reading my little SEO blog, because I have written many times about too much wiki in search results. I just completed testing and have read how others feel about the new “tool”. It seems like most are in agreement with me, that this is a BIG MISTAKE! There are already petitions circulating on the web and negative feed back all over the web. It reminds me of the way to report link buying through webmasters tools. Nothing verified, just an anonymous tip. It’s not like they have a copy of the link purchase or receipt but punishment is still handed down to the website owner.
What is Side Wiki?
It is a sidebar that shows comments about your site from website visitors. It’s a lot like a blog with comments on it, but with Side-wiki you have no control like you would with your own blog. This is just plain stupid. In my mind that will ultimately lead to more spam in the search engine. This is just one more misstep by Google that will ultimately hurt people and business owners. Snapshot below of Google’s new SPAM tool, I mean Sidewiki in action.
Google's SideWiki is SPAM
Here are the pros and cons. Whoops, there are no pros, so I’ll just give the cons.
SideWiki can be used by your competition to defame a business owners website. Just what we need in these tough economic times, but Google doesn’t care they have plenty of cash (they may not after all the lawsuits). Not to mention the privacy issues related to installing the Google Toolbar.
Here is why I am so annoyed by this. Lets say your small business owner and your competition writes a nasty review and they never used your services or bought your products. Also, who verifies the entries? Certainly not Google, they already clearly state they do not have time to handle re-inclusion request if you look inside webmaster tools. There is also no real way to contact them about problems you may have with their tools or services. You could try the are you dissatisfied with results link at the bottom of search engine results page, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
So what else can you do to stop it?
After you try the link above you could join one of the many online petitions or write a letter to them expressing your concerns. If you have already been slandered then you may want to try a lawsuit. I’m sure there will be another class action one coming soon enough. I don’t think that they will care because they have won every time someone has tried to sue them. My last suggestion would be to close your Adwords accounts and for Adsense user stop displaying Google’s ads on your site. We are in the process of shutting our accounts down now.
Hit where it counts, in the wallet. That always seems to change peoples tune. Here is a link to their contact information.
