Google's taking a stab at making web browser social. And in typical Google fashion, it's turning to algorithms to do it.
The company has announced and launched a new project, Google Sidewiki, a Firefox and Internet Explorer add-on (Chrome support is in the works) that adds a sidebar for commenting on sites across the web.
Users with the plug-in installed can add their own opinions to the discussion of precise web pages. While there are range of products that already do this sort of thing, Google differentiates with its algorithm.
Google's explanation of the technology is actually fairly 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."
