Genius web annotator versus a woman with a blog | Observer

I had no idea that the music lyrics website, Genius, also operated a tool that allows you to comment/annotate on any website, but apparently it does and apparently it's not even that new. It also turns out that some people have used that tool to harass and target others. The lack of a report feature is certainly problematic. Beyond that, I'm not sure what side of the fence I fall on here. Do I like the idea that people may be having secret conversations "on" my website or blog posts? Not particularly, but I also don't see the difference between what an annotation tool like Genius is doing versus reposts to sites like Twitter or Reddit. I also agree that the web could benefit from a "fact-checking" layer, something much like how Genius lyrics work with expanded context, historical information, explanations etc. That element I think is great and only wish it wasn't tied behind a login/restricted service. Though on that last note, apparently a web annotation standard is in the works.

Don’t color in the dark with a yellow crayon and call it criticism.
The law is what people who don’t know how to behave themselves turn to in disputes. Grown-ups find ways to get along.

Explore Other Notes

⬅ Newer

Famous colleges

Parents can do their children a favor if, from an early age, kids hear them say “famous college” instead of “good college.”Because there’s very little data that shows […]

Older ➡

Srcset and sizes

A wonderfully illustrated and deeply informative article on responsive images on the web. 👏 Also, Eric's worries about "none of this being implemented in any browser yet" are no longer […]
  • I had no idea that the music lyrics website, Genius, also operated a tool that allows you to comment/annotate on any website, but apparently it does and apparently it's not even that new. It also […]
  • Murray Adcock.
Journal permalink

Made By Me, But Made Possible By:

CMS:

Build: Gatsby

Deployment: GitHub

Hosting: Netlify

Connect With Me:

Twitter Twitter

Instagram Instragram

500px 500px

GitHub GitHub

Keep Up To Date:

All Posts RSS feed.

Articles RSS feed.

Journal RSS feed.

Notes RSS feed.