How’s Google News’ Participant Comments Doing So Far? Not So Hott
When Google News announced that it was going to add “participant comments” last month, I had a lot of questions, such as:
* How are “participants” found, invited to comment, and verified as participants?
* Will participant comments be able to be commented upon by “non-participants” i.e. regular folk?
One month in, it’s been reported that “so far only about one hundred people have bothered to e-mail Google News and go through the complicated hassle of commenting on a story.”
Maybe Google News will have more luck with its bold move to publish wire stories on its own site, as opposed to linking out to the hundreds of websites who have deals with wire services.
In any event, Google is clearly looking to up the ante in content publishing, moving past its search and tools core to publishing (or republishing) content, inviting user interaction, and so on. This all equates to more people spending more time on Google media properties.
But in the case of participant comments, it’s not finding wide adoption as yet. It’s very interesting to see Google struggle with editorial activities that require close human interaction, as opposed to its dominance over algorithmic-driven services.
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