Google Sidewiki – that’s the newest mechanism added to the Google browser toolbar, and it is essentially what can be called a ‘meta comments engine’! It would allow users to annotate any web page and also read annotations left by others.

Both Internet Explorer and Firefox facilitate the download of the Sidewiki from the Google Toolbar, and Google will soon roll it directly into the company’s Chrome browser too. The new comments contraption pops up as a browser sidebar, along the left-hand side of a webpage.

Though essentially Sidewiki adds user comments to every Internet page, these comments – unlike other comments - will be sorted by Google, using its specific algorithms, in the order of their relevance.

Announcing the new contraption, the Official Google Blog read thus: “Developing Sidewiki, we wanted to make sure that you'll see the most relevant entries first. 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.”

With the Google spokesperson, Eitan Encuya, saying in an email that Google currently has “no plans to monetize Sidewiki,” the business model of the Sidewiki and its later incorporation into Google’s Chrome OS operating system is not clear as yet!