Has Google Tried To Steal a Startup’s Idea?

Reframe It, a new startup releasing a web application,  found itself in the position of having something strikingly similar coming along from a large, established vendor when Google launched its Sidewiki Web annotation service on September 23. Sidewiki is a browser sidebar that can be installed and launched from the Google Toolbar, which allows users to open a notepad on the left side of a Web page to make comments on that page. Reframe It creates a Web browser extension that opens a notepad on the right side of a Web page, letting users make comments on that page. The extension works with Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari as well as Google Chrome browsers.

Sidewiki and Reframe It are two separate products, but they generally do perform the exact same function: let users add notes to one side of a Web page. There are certainly noticeable differences. Reframe It has group functionality that Sidewiki lacks.Did Google plan to copy Reframe It’s technology and cripple Reframe It? That’s what Fishkin, Refram It’s creator and his team at Reframe It suggest. Courtesy of eweek.com