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Google launched a new project, Google Sidewiki, which integrates into Google Toolbar. Users with Google Toolbar + Sidewiki can add their own opinions to the discussion of specific web pages. While there are a range of products that already do this sort of thing, Google differentiates with its algorithm.

Google’s explanation of the technology is actually quite succinct, so here is their explanation on the Google Blog:

“In developing Sidewiki, we wanted to make sure that you’ll see the most relevant entries first. We worked hard from the beginning to figure out which ones should appear on top and how to best order them. So instead of displaying the most recent entries first, we rank Sidewiki entries using an algorithm that promotes the most useful, high-quality entries. It takes into account feedback from you and other users, previous entries made by the same author and many other signals we developed.”





The feature is integrated with Google Profiles, so you can find more information about the author and read other Sidewiki comments. Google notifies you if there are comments about the current page, so you need to send your browsing history to use the feature.