Use Sidewiki to enhance your web surfing

Sidewiki is part of the Google Toolbar add-on, which is available for Internet Explorer and Firefox. By following this Workshop your browser will have both Google Toolbar and Sidewiki installed. Go to www.google.com/sidewiki by clicking on the link above. When the Sidewiki home page appears, left-click once on the Install Google Toolbar with Sidewiki button.

Read through the terms and conditions, click to tick or remove the checkboxes below as per your preference (we suggest removing both ticks) and then click the Accept and Download button. When the File Download dialogue box appears, click Save and choose a location to store the setup file ­ the Windows Desktop is always a good bet. The download is just 2MB, so won’t take very long to complete. When finished, locate and double-click the setup file (called ‘GoogleToolbarInstaller_en32_signed.exe’). If a Security Warning dialogue box appears just click Run.

The installation will take just a few seconds. When complete, the web browser will restart with the Google Toolbar in place. A Google ‘Thank you’ message will be displayed the first time: clear this by clicking OK. A second message will appear to ask if ‘enhanced features’ should be enabled in Google Toolbar: as this is a requirement to run Sidewiki, click the Enable enhanced features button.

Sidewiki is now ready to roll. As noted, Google Toolbar is also installed but won’t be our focus here. For more help on using Google Toolbar itself, on the toolbar click the small down-pointing arrow alongside the spanner icon and choose Google Toolbar Help from the dropdown menu. To see how Sidewiki works, start by visiting a popular website (we’re going to www.bbc.co.uk) and then click the Sidewiki button on the Google Toolbar.

After a moment, a Sidewiki panel will appear on the left-hand side of the browser window. If other Sidewiki users have already commented about the visited website, a ‘Read entries’ link will appear at the foot of this column ­ just click it. As the BBC home page is very popular, lots of comments have indeed already been made.

Use the scroll bar on the right of the Sidewiki pane to scroll through the main ‘page’ of comments, or click the Previous and Next links to explore more. Note that the comments on the opening Sidewiki page will either be there through luck of timing (ie the first comment to be made), or because other Sidewiki users have voted them ‘useful’ comments. To cast a worthiness vote on a comment, first click to highlight the comment and then click either Yes or No alongside the ‘Useful?’ label.

Adding comments requires a Google account. If you don’t have one visit www.google.com/accounts, click the ‘Create an account now’ link just below the main sign-in form and follow the prompts. Back in the Sidewiki pane, click the ‘Sign in to write an entry’ link, enter your Google account details and click the Sign in button. Type a title and comment into the boxes provided, altering or removing your name should you wish to remain anonymous, and then click the Publish button.

And here it is, our comment, duly published. Any other Sidewiki user who visits the BBC home page from now will be about to read our comment. Remember, this comment is stored by Google, not the BBC. It will be viewable only to other Sidewiki users. Want to spread your pearl of wisdom further? Click the Share link below the comment and choose one of the communication options. Alternatively, click Edit to make changes or, to remove the comment, click Delete.

There are a couple of ways to tweak the behaviour of Sidewiki. To see these, click the down-pointing arrow alongside the Sidewiki button on the Google Toolbar and choose Sidewiki Options. Click to place ticks in the ‘Enable notification bar’ and ‘Show notification...’ checkboxes and, whenever you visit a page with Sidewiki entries, a small bar will appear in the web browser window to let you know.

Here’s the notification bar in action. We’ve visited a new website that has Sidewiki entries. A bar has appeared on the left-hand side of the screen. If we click the small right-pointing chevron the Sidewiki pane will sweep into view. Similarly, the pane can be made to vanish by clicking this same chevron. To disable the Google Toolbar (and Sidewiki with it), click the View menu, point to Toolbars and then click to remove the tick alongside Google Toolbar.