Technical Questions about Google SideWiki?

4 replies
1) Can it edit the content of your website? Say I have text that reads, "Please help support Big Cat Rescue!" Will I suddenly wake up and find, "Big Cat Rescue is ****!"

2) If I password-protect my forums and comment pages, will that help stop this thing?
#google #questions #sidewiki
  • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
    Originally Posted by wirelessgeek View Post

    1) Can it edit the content of your website? Say I have text that reads, "Please help support Big Cat Rescue!" Will I suddenly wake up and find, "Big Cat Rescue is ****!"
    No. Your content itself won't be changed. But someone could leave a comment that says "Big Cat Rescue is ****!"

    2) If I password-protect my forums and comment pages, will that help stop this thing?
    Very good question. I don't know.
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  • Profile picture of the author designfuschion
    Originally Posted by James Campbell View Post
    Wow, this is not good already:

    "Has anyone noticed a new type of URL showing up in the SERPs? Here's an example:
    Google Sidewiki entry about Vaccine controversy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    It currently ranks number two on Google US for the phrase sidewiki controversy, BTW.
    The above quote is from the "if you want to take a stand against google..etc" thread on sidewiki problem..

    I've been worried about this before it was even discovered by the above member.
    If google is scraping and rehosting a sites content,..
    imagine the newbies to the internet that can't distinguish between a proper trusted url and googles fake sidewiki url?

    Does this mean G will be recording passwords,to sites that aren't google products?
    i.e. joe blows membership site.

    So then if that is the case,it means no site is secure anymore. ..and if google records the passwords or other significant data previously unaccessable to them,they can then gain access.

    Banks have a hard enough time educating people to not believe email banking fakes/fraud emails. So now when joe blow thinks he is accessing his net banking(and doesnt check the url) his details could be recorded by google.
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  • Profile picture of the author Catalin Ionescu
    Google doesn't record the passwords to your sites, it doesn't have to. It records the address bar of the page and any comment users left to that page.

    Later on, when a user that has the password and toolbar installed views that page, the toolbar recognizes it and says "a-ha. I have a comment or two about this... Here they are." and it shows the comments on the left side of your page.
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