Google quietly rolled out Sidewiki last week via its blog. Its the Google way.

It allows anyone with Google account to annotate web pages in a sidebar enabled via the Google Toolbar. It also appears to pull in content related to blog page from Google blogs.

Comments are ordered using an algorithm that promotes the most useful, high-quality entries.

Here’s the irony: Google launched this tool to take control away from brands in the same week that Squidoo launched Brands in Public in a bid to bring control back to brands.

I think I know which of the two products will fly.