First, here’s a video about it:

On FocusOnTheUser.org, where you can get the bookmarklet, it says, “This proof of concept was built by some engineers at Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, in consultation with several other social networking companies. We are open-sourcing the code so that anyone may use it or make it even better.”

John Battelle has a bit more of the story, however, after visiting Facebook’s offices. He talked to Ross, who is one of the creators of Firefox. Battelle writes, “It was a simple hack, he said, some code he had thrown together in response to the whole Google+ tempest.”

“After Blake showed me his work, we had a lively discussion about the implications of Facebook actually releasing such a tool,” writes Battelle. “I mean, it’s one thing for a lone hacktivist to do this, it’s quite another for a member of the Internet Big Five to publicly call Google out. Facebook would need to vet this with legal, with management (this clearly had to pass muster with Mark Zuckerberg), and, I was told, Facebook wanted to reach out to others – such as Twitter – and get their input as well.”

Apparently that strategy went through, since Twitter and MySpace are also getting some credit.

The bookmarket actually says “Don’t Be Evil,” a reference to Google’s proclaimed philosophy.

An interesting snippet from the FAQ page at FocusOnTheUser.org:

Q: I thought Google needed a deal and more info from social sites to integrate them into its new social features?

A: This is clearly not true. The bookmarklet never accesses any server or API outside of google.com. The information has already been indexed and ranked by Google.

Do you think the bookmarklet makes Google’s results better? Better than Google’s own toggle? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Google has now introduced a Sidewiki bookmarklet that can be used to read and write Sidewiki entries with Google Chrome, Safari, and other browsers. The bookmarklet is just a shortcut that goes in the bookmarks bar of you browser, and when you click it, it opens up a window showing Sidewiki entries for whatever page you’re on.

When using Sidewiki, an expandable window can be viewed on the left-hand side of the webpage. When expanded, you can see the comments that have been written or contribute your own.

Upon introducing Sidewiki, Google said it uses "multiple signals" based on the "quality of the entry," what they know about the author, and other user-contributed signals like voting and flagging. They say they want to only keep the most relevant entries appearing in the sidebar. Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan says Google gave him a few other factors like:

- Use of sophisticated language
- User’s reputation
- User’s history

Users’ Google Profiles are said to play a direct role in whether or not comments appear. Google ranks profiles in a PageRank-like manor, so the higher you profile is ranked, the more likely your comments are able to appear.

Related Articles:

> Google Turning the Web Into an Exclusive Social Network?

> Integration – The Key to Google as a Social Network

> Want to Get Your Google Profile Verified?

With this new release, users can share news with their LinkedIn Connections, Company Groups, or user Created Groups from anywhere on the web.

To use it, all you have to do is:

– Click the bookmarklet to share from anywhere

– Choose from connections or groups to share with

– Optionally start a discussion with any of your groups about the content.

For adding the bookmarket to Firefox, you simply have to drag the "Share on LinkedIn" link on this page to your browser toolbar. For Internet Explorer, you have to:

1. Right Click on the link
2. Select "Add to Favorites"
3. Click "Yes" if you see a Security Alert group
4. Select "Favorites Bar" from "Create In"
5. Click Add.

Easy enough. This is a great way for people to share content with their contacts on LinkedIn, and it’s all about sharing these days.