I had a chance to dig into the nearly week-old Google Sidewiki today, and there’s plenty to like–and not like–about the product. Here’s my take:

Instant social

* Sidewiki enables any page on the web to become social–from Chris Brogan’s tweet stream to the Walmart homepage or a Seth Godin blog post. Once users download and install Sidewiki (it’s free, and is an add-on to the Google Toolbar in Firefox and Internet Explorer, with Google Chrome support still to come), they can start commenting away in a window that appears to the left of the page.

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* In addition to making their own comments, Sidewiki users can also click “yes,” “no,” or “report abuse” to indicate a particular comment’s usefulness/legitimacy.

* For easy sharing and spreading across the social web, each comment also has a unique URL and buttons for posting to Twitter and Facebook.

* Sidewiki also continues the trend of distributed and fragmented online social conversations. From blog posts and their associated comment threads to Twitter to Facebook to FriendFeed and now to Sidewiki, users continue to take their reactions and commentary anywhere across the social web.

No control for brands; more monitoring needed

* Brands and site publishers have no say over the content that appears in Sidewikis alongside their web pages. That means no moderation controls; no options to instantly kill spam, malicious, or obviously off-topic comments; and no obvious way to reply to a particular comment. There’s also no notification system to alert publishers to new Sidewiki posts on their sites. Jeff Jarvis says this is all a dangerous receipe.

* Brands and content creators are ultimately at the mercy of a “Google algorithm,” which determines the order of the comments and even whether they appear at all. According to Danny Sullivan, user voting and flagging, a “user’s reputation,” and “a user’s history” are all a part of the algorithm.

* As some measure of good news (though this could be debated), all Sidewiki entries are tied to specific Google users and their Google profiles, so anonymous comments are not allowed.

* Brands that aren’t doing so already should install Sidewiki and begin regular monitoring of Sidewikis next to key landing pages and new social-media content on their sites. Companies should also claim their site(s) through Google Webmaster Central, giving them the right to post or edit the comment that appears atop the Sidewiki.

Digital litter?

* Absent any real control for content publishers, Sidewiki’s initial success will depend on the robustness of its algorithm and users’ trust of the product. That will require a level of online community building and engagement that John Battelle says isn’t part of Google’s MO.

* If early activity to corporate pages is any indication, the devolution of Sidewiki pages into a digital wasteland is certainly possible (hope I’m wrong here). Two of the first three Sidewiki comments to the Dell homepage, for example, are clearly spam–and yet they remain. Only a welcome message to commenters from Dell’s Laura Thomas is legit.

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What about SEO?

* Sidewiki is all about Google’s algorithm, remember, so the integration of Sidewiki content into search is inevitable, and brands–both corporate and personal–should keep a watchful eye on Sidewiki’s impact to their search-engine results.

Don’t forget advertising …

Update: Google’s contextual ads aren’t part of Sidewikis … yet, but you can bet they’ll be integrated into the product sooner rather than later. Here’s Jason Falls’ take on what’s coming:

[R]emember what Google does best … serves up relevant advertising in search results. I would expect your competitors will have the opportunity to place their ads on your Sidewiki soon, too. (Of course, you would be able to place yours on theirs, too.)

The final (initial) verdict?

Decidedly mixed, in my view. The continued power shift to consumers on websites is an inevitable byproduct of Sidewiki, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. But the threat of threat of unmanageable comment abuse on high-profile web pages also looms large. Let’s file this under the “be diligent and vigilant” category.

Sidewiki is open for business on BryanPerson.com

Not that you need my permission, of course, but you can comment on Sidewikis throughout this site at any time!

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