Google Sidewiki - Another front in the Content Wars
20090930 at 14:52 UPDATE: Sidewiki “policies”:
Keep Sidewiki spam and malware free. Spam includes, but is not limited to, unwanted promotional or commercial content, or posts with gibberish such as keyword spamming. We also don’t allow the transmission of malware, viruses, or anything that may disrupt the service or harm others.
Speak your mind without being hateful or threatening to others. Lively discussions can happen without posting hateful, threatening, harassing, or bullying content. We encourage you to work out disputes or disagreements on your own. However, in serious or egregious cases, we will take action.
Keep it legal. Don’t engage in unlawful activities on this product. If we are notified of unlawful activities, we will take appropriate action, which may include removing access to Sidewiki, your Google account, or reporting you to the appropriate authorities.
Respect copyright laws. We will respond to clear notices of alleged copyright infringement. Repeated infringement of intellectual property rights, including copyright, will result in account termination. For more information on Google’s copyright policies, please see here
Don’t post or link to sexually explicit material. Posts that are irrelevant and serve to drive traffic to material with nudity, graphic sex acts, or sexually explicit content are considered spam and aren’t allowed. We also don’t allow posts that promote unlawful or inappropriate sexual acts with or depictions of children or animals.
Google has a zero-tolerance policy against child pornography. If we become aware of child pornography on our properties, the content will be removed and we will report it and its owners to the appropriate authorities.
Don’t pretend to be someone else. We don’t allow impersonation of others or other behavior that is misleading or intended to be misleading.
Don’t share personal or confidential information. We don’t allow unauthorized publishing of people’s private and confidential information, such as credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, driver’s and other license numbers, or any other information that is not publicly accessible.
I was engaged in the constant and tedious chore I call “twitter gardening” when I noticed that Google Sidewiki had content attached to Twitter’s home page: (image linked to Sidewiki comment pictured)
Setting aside questions about Sidewiki’s purpose, originality, et cetera, it seems that Sidewiki has opened a new front in the Content Wars. There is a clear incentive to adding Sidewiki content: Google exposure, such as quick access to your Google profile, and traffic to whatever links you include.
This is one more place for spammers and scammers to go crazy, to say nothing of self-promoting “social media experts” and the like.
I don’t know about you, but I’m not at all excited about the prospect of more “gardening chores,” especially since Google has not done a good job in preventing and removing Google Groups spammers or Google Maps errors.
What do you think? Be the first and tell me in a Sidewiki comment on this site if you dare.
