Critical Web, Forgiving Web
Categories: NEWS, TECHNOLOGICAL
A couple things were launched this week to much criticism. A system called Brands in Public aims to help companies track what people are saying about on the Internet. And a little thing Sidewiki from a little company called Google.
First, about Seth Godin. I find it interesting that you can’t leave comments on his personal blog, but it does list trackbacks. Trackbacks appear so a blogger can see who is linking to them. Here’s the original post from Godin that announced Brands in Public and touched off the controversy. The reaction was that Godin was engaging in a form of brandjacking. Godin responded today with an apology. He said there was a misunderstanding and that he took down the stuff that people didn’t like. A perfect example of the Real-Time Web/Living Web/Web 2.0, etc…
Charlotte’s very own Social Media head honcho had this opinion of Godin’s efforts and the reaction:
So, we have a case with the news isn’t the news, or at least not what you think it should be. The news is that Godin did something that agitated alot of people on the web. People responded quickly, and they had a point. Chalk part of it up to unclear communication, but change happened. And people aren’t blasting Godin anymore.
To the left, to the left
Yes, I’m quoting Beyonce. Why? Because Google launched this new thing called Sidewiki that allows you add comments to a page. If a page has been Sidewikied, then a barely noticeable, very slim blue line will appear on the left of the browser window on that specific webpage. Not entirely revolutionary, since most blogs already have comment boxes underneath posts, except for the fact that it takes comments off the author’s page. In my opinion, comments are garbage. Trackbacks are king and if more bloggers followed Godin’s lead, it would encourage more people to start their own blogs and start linking. When you have your own blog your comments become more thoughtful. You can still publish things fast, but it does take a couple extra clicks, so maybe that gives some people enough time to realize they’re being rude and not thinking things through.
In this case it wasn’t the developer with a big announcement post and follow-up, it was the critic. And how much difference does a day make? Not much, in this case — Jeff Jarvis’s follow-up post.
I like Sidewiki, but was still excited to get a Jarvis RT:
You read it right. As of now, Google’s own web browser Chrome doesn’t support Google’s new Sidewiki.
It’s hard to be in Charlotte and talk about Social Media goings-on without mentioning Jason Keath. This post, he gets a mention twice. Check out Keath’s latest video post to see how Google markets things (while understanding the power of word of mouth).