2006 – 2009retired
Google Page Creator
“No HTML, no CSS, all heart — your first website lives on in Google Sites now”
“It gave every website a margin, and let us scribble in it.”
Google Sidewiki was a web annotation service that let anyone with a Google Account leave comments on any website, visible to other users in a sidebar. Despite the name, it was never a true collaborative wiki, though authors could edit their own words. For the people who used it, the whole web suddenly became a place you could talk back to.
Launched in September 2009, Sidewiki was discontinued in December 2011, lasting barely two years. It left behind the memory of a more chatty internet — and a proof of concept that others would keep chasing long after Google walked away.
Spotted something wrong? Every fact on this page traces to a dated source. Fixes make the graveyard better for everyone.
“No HTML, no CSS, all heart — your first website lives on in Google Sites now”
“Processed with love, developed by post, remembered in permanent color.”
“Three thousand owners, one open Linux heart, and a promise that software can dream in hardware.”