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Can Facebook Save the Comment?

By Mark Evans in Blogs, Social Media 2 Comments Tags: , , ,

You remember the blog comment? Back in the day, it was the thing to do on social media. What a novelty to opine, correct, rant or inform about a published article in real-time to a global audience.

Then along came Twitter and Facebook, and the comment got shoved into the corner like an old toy with chipped paint and a missing wheel. There have been valiant efforts to resuscitate the comment by start-ups such as Disqus and IntenseDebate but the comment remains a social media second-class citizen (arguably along with the podcast).

But is there new hope for the comment? Does the launch of Facebook Comments mean the comment could regain some of its lost lustre? While it has only been a week since some blogs were able to start using it, Facebook Comments shows interesting and intriguing potential.

Putting aside any issues you may have with Facebook gaining access to even more of your data (no small task given the magnitude of Mark Zuckerberg’s ambitions), Facebook Comments has a real shot of revitalizing the blog comment because it offers a new way to provide it with a universal platform. Rather than being stuck inside a blog post, a Facebook-powered comment benefits from the social clout of that having more than 600 million users offers.

For bloggers, it means the dividend of attracting a comment – no small task in the scheme of things – can be distributed to a much wider audience, who can then discover the comment and, hopefully, click through to the blog. Given comments are one of the things that sustains most bloggers, the ability to use a comment system on steroids is a serious temptation – even if means selling your soul to the devil.

For people who leave comments, Facebook Comments provides a much broader platform to have their opinions seen and read. You have to understand the blog commenter is a strange beast. Not only do they read blog posts but many actually leave insightful commentary. It’s an investment of time and energy, which is why their efforts are so appreciated by bloggers who slog away with little financial reward.

Of course, there is no such thing as a free lunch, and Facebook Comments come with a pretty high price tag. For bloggers, it means surrendering your comment system and its data to Facebook. For commenters, it means there’s no such thing as an anonymous comment. As well, a comment can appear on Facebook as well as other blogs using Facebook Comments so there’s no such thing as just leaving a comment for a particular forum.

Facebook Comments may not be perfect and it may not be the best solution to the plight of the blog comment, but it does illustrate a new approach to bring the blog comment back from the social backwaters.

One final note: You’ll see that I’m not using Facebook Comments despite some of the benefits it offers. Why not? The biggest obstacle is I have little interest in giving more information to Facebook. Second, I want to control and manage my comments, which is I’ve tried and backed away from Disqus and IntenseDebate.

For more thoughts about Facebook Comments, check out TechCrunch, which has has discovered the critics and trolls have strangely disappeared.

Smashing Magazine also has a lengthy and insightful post with the provocative title “Where Have All the Comments Gone?”. Robert Cringely weighs in on how Facebook Comments is another blow to the loss of anonymity on the Web.

A Commentary About Blog Comment Systems

By Mark Evans in Blog Services, Blogs 4 Comments Tags: , , , ,

A few of you might have noticed that I recently switched blog comment systems – moving to Echo from IntenseDebate. The switch was mostly prompted by my frustration with IntenseDebate’s administrative features, particularly the inability to deal with spam on a volume/bulk basis as opposed to individually or groups of 10 at a time.

Having used Disqus at Twitterrati, I went looking for another comment system to see if there was another good option. After a bit of research, I came across Echo, which appeared to have many of the necessary features. I particularly liked how Echo would display tweets as well as comments – thereby providing coverage of more conversations about my blog posts.

Installing Echo was pretty straightforward, and the comments already within the blog were imported easily and quickly.

After a week or so of it, I’m not completely convinced it’s a long-term solution. The look and feel isn’t as polished as I’d like it to be, and the administrative functions need to be improved in terms of usability and intuitiveness.

Given Disqus and IntenseDebate have free versions, I’m surprised Echo costs $12/year after a 30-day trial period. Not that $12 is a lot of money but the lack of a free version is a detraction.

To be honest, I’d probably have uninstalled Echo already but there doesn’t appear to be an easy to uninstall it, which is completely strange.

Any thoughts on other blog comment systems?

Is Social Media Making Journalists Lazy?

By Mark Evans in Media, Social Media 11 Comments Tags: , , , ,

journalismWhen I was a newspaper reporter, a key part of the job was finding and interviewing sources who could offer information, perspective, insight and, of course, some good quotes. It required legwork and the ability to build relationships and trust with people.

While talking to sources is still an integral part of journalism, I’ve noticed a growing number of newspaper articles recently that cite or quote blog posts, blog comments or tweets. For example, the Toronto Star’s story about Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams going to a U.S. hospital for heart surgery included a quote from “Matt” taken from a U.S. Politics Online forum: “Canada keeps its costs down, in part, by neglecting the expensive business of advanced specialty care knowing that the U.S. is next door to help”.

I don’t think the reporter, Tonda MacCharles, has any information about “Matt” and his area of expertise but it must have struck her as a colorful and relevant enough to use in the story. While she did interview a Conservative Senator, Wilbert Keon, for the story, you would think she could have gotten the same kind of quote by interviewing another person rather than quoting “Matt”

So, the question is whether this kind of “reporting” is lazy journalism? Rather than having to talk with someone, all you need to do is a Google or Twitter search to find a comment, tweet or update that fits the bill. While it could also be argued that using these type of quotes is smart because it reflects what people are talking about, I wouldn’t describe this activity as journalism.

What do you think? Is using blog comments, tweets, etc. lazy journalism or a good use of social media conversations?

The Death of the Blog Comment?

By Mark Evans in Blogs, Social Media 26 Comments Tags: , , , ,

commentFor all the talk about social media being about “conversations”, it has become more apparent that the blog comment landscape is becoming a lot less vibrant and interesting.

At one time, comments on blogs were pretty standard – you read an interesting post, you left a comment. Today, you read an interesting post, and then do a tweet, retweet on Twitter, an update on Facebook, or make a comment on Friendfeed, Reddit or Mixx. Sure, there’s still commentary happening but the blog comment is being shuttled to the sidelines.

Is this a good thing? Does it really matter if there are fewer comments on blogs as long as conversations are happening elsewhere? For blog owners, I’m sure it’s far from ideal because part of the “rewards” from writing a post is getting a reaction – good, bad or indifferent – from readers. Given the new comment landscape, bloggers need to look at a variety of other services to see if they’ve generated any buzz.

What do you think? Is the blog comment heading for extinction?

Where Are the Comment Search Engines?

By Mark Evans in Blogs 13 Comments Tags: , , , , ,

There seems to be no lack of entrepreneurs willing to take a crack at developing a new search engine – even if it means going to head to head with Google. Whether it’s Wolfram Alpha, Bing, Cuil or Blekko, there is no lack of search start-ups.

What’s puzzling about this search landscape is the lack of start-ups focused on blog comments. Sure, there’s BackType but it seems to be a lonely voice in the woods. In doing some research on comment search engines, it’s surprising to see so few options.

The question is why the dearth of comment search engines when there are dozens of general search engines, search engines focused on verticals such as travel, and search engines for Twitter?

Sure, there are social media monitoring and analytics services such as Sysomos that can show blog comments but there doesn’t appear to be search engines that simply focus on comments.

Is this an opportunity waiting for someone to capture, or are comments not interesting enough to warrant someone developing a search engine?

Who knows, it may be there’s no viable business model around comment search. But you still have to believe that in this you-can-build-it-so-built-it online landscape that now exists, there’s a smart person who would be willing to build a kick-ass comment search engine just for fun.

More: Speaking of comments, Mitch Joel has a post looking at whether or not comments should be offered as an option on a blog.


Spam Getting More Sophisticated

By Mark Evans in Blogs 3 Comments Tags: , ,

Say what you want about spammers but they definitely creative.

Take, for example, what they’re doing with comments on blogs. At first blush, the comments look legit. But if you look at the e-mail and Web site address, you realize it’s a spammer looking to get a link on your blog.

Here’s a comment left by a spammer, who was hoping to get some attention for his hottub spa site, about a blog post on how I use Twitter:

I already try to use twitter but only active when I’m online via my laptop. But until now I’m still do not get any clue what makes twitter can be loved by so much people mean while I do not see any interesting for using twitter.

Maybe others can give an idea what this is all about since I only try to follow others(not people that I know) and usually around half of them will follow me back.

It looks like a comment and smells like a comment but, baby, it’s spam.

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