: Is there a way to block the use of Google's SideWiki? Google created a tool that can be really great for some people, but it can also be a huge problem for others. I'm talking about the

@Dunderdale272

I'm not sure people remember ThirdVoice. SideWiki is basically that, but a decade later. None of these systems have (yet? ever?) caught on in a big way. These systems are basically just mechanisms for criticism. And just as you can't really control the reviews of your site or business on Yelp or Facebook or even the newspaper, you can't control these systems.

Here's a discussion of possible ways to defeat SideWiki, though some are technical and will thus be transient in nature. It looks like there's no robots.txt-style opt out at this point.

Now, based on the SideWiki API documentation, it looks like you can get a feed of your site's SideWiki items, and if you care to, you can counter claims that you feel are in error.

EDIT: Now, given that it's Google who maintains this particular site, if they were to get SideWiki installed by default into Google Chrome, there would be cause for me to be more concerned about the influence of the tool. But as it is, it requires an alternative browser (FireFox, Chrome), and it requires a browser add on (FireFox addon, Google Toolbar, Chrome addon).

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@Mendez628

I do not believe there is currently a way to disable the Google Toolbar beyond using https or adding the JavaScript disable script.

Here is a discussion from the Google forums about it, www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters/thread?tid=494bb6012632fb05.
One thing to remember is only a very small number of people actually use the Google Toolbar.

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