SideWiki Blocker
I’ve just finished putting the final touches to a new Wordpress plugin that blocks comments being displayed in Google’s new SideWiki tool.
You can download the plugin here. Just unzip and copy up to your /wp-content/plugins/ directory.
Once activated it works. To stop it, simply unactivate the plugin.
The plugin is simply a wrapper for the Javascript code that Steve Diamond wrote (http://stevediamondconsulting.com/), you can download the code at :
http://code.google.com/p/sidewiki-defeat/, or use it straiught from Google’s own site. I prefer having it on my own hosting as it “might go missing” on google’s hosting 
There’s a lot of concern about Google’s new SideWiki “module” that comes bundled with the latest version of the Google Toolbar.
You may be wondering, “If I’m doing nothing wrong, what have I got to worry about?”
A good questions, but it wouldn’t take much for your competitors to leave “bad” comments about your website, and as well as dropping links to other peoples websites.
The following image is a screenshot from Google’s own toolbar site, see the comments down the side.
Now imagine the comments where left by your competitors, saying:
“Bruce Hearder is a scammer. He stole my money. Never buy from him.”
“This product is OK, but found a better product at www.xyz.com”
Already the spammers and “grey-to blackhat” brigade are jumping on the bandwagon.
See this video and Howie Swartz’s PDF which show what might be in store.
So if your reputation is important to you, then think about Google SideWiki comments toolbar serious!
October 3rd, 2009 at 2:26 pm
[...] is a wrapper for Steve's code, so all thansk to him. You can get the wordpress plugin I wrote at : http://www.websitesecrets101.com/sidewiki-blocker/ The BlueFartters are already starting to think of opportunities to use SideWiki. I found this [...]
October 3rd, 2009 at 9:24 pm
[...] you want to block it on your blogs, here is a Wordpress plugin that does just [...]
October 4th, 2009 at 9:44 am
Module does not work in WordPress version 2.8.4
Followed the instructions, which make no sense at all, and copied a .js file into the WP/wp-content/plugins folder and it does not show up in the plug-in list.
There must be something else missing or needs to be done before a .js file shows up as a plug-in in WP.
October 4th, 2009 at 9:51 am
Sorry, I now understand to move over the complete folder – works just fine.
Will this affect the way Google indexes a website? Can it harm current rankings?
Thanks and sorry for the confustion.
October 4th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Hi EricThor,
The effect on your sites SEO is unknow at the moment, but based on what I know about SEO, I think it will matter very little.
The default for most webservers is to ignore everything that comes after a # symbol, so if the search engines do the same thing, then its gonna have neglible impact on a sites SEO.
But we need to find out if that is the case or not.
October 6th, 2009 at 10:21 am
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October 8th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
nice piece – works brilliantly on both WP and straight sites
October 12th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
Hello Bruce – and thank you for the Plugin.
I didn’t feel comfortable with the modified URL’s – maybe it’s because I do a lot of URL copying to create links…
When I was playing around with it I did try shortening the appended hash – and it worked. As far as the blocking goes I think even 1 character would do the trick – so why 12?
All Things Good
Ronen
October 13th, 2009 at 4:39 am
[...] Sidewiki Blocker Wordpress Plugin [...]
October 13th, 2009 at 11:17 am
Hi, its appears that SideWiki is tying its comment to specific URLs. So by changing the URLs, its becomes unique.
Its doesn’t really matter if you’ve got 1 or 12 charaster after the # symbol, its still makes it unique. The reason it does not go with just 1 symbol, is that there is techically a 1 in 26 chance of you coming up with the same URL as last time. But using 12 chars, the probabilty of it being the same is now almost ZERO
December 22nd, 2009 at 3:41 am
Please send Your Feedback to Google about the Sidwiki.
This tool is a great idea BUT can cause irreparable damage to reputations and businesses when used by spammers.
Google should give webmasters a way to opt out their own websites OR the right to moderate comments related to our their own domains.
I really recommend to all website owners to claim the ownership of their sidewiki and to go to the following google page and leave a comment:
http://www.google.com/support/toolbar/bin/request.py?contact_type=sidewiki_feedback&hl=en
You can also read what other webmasters think of this tool and leave your own comment here:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Toolbar/thread?tid=65cd1ca77affd341&hl=en#all
Hope this will help!
I wish you all the best