Facebook's Next Big Media Move: Comments

CNET, Tuesday, February 1, 2011 11:48 AM

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As if Facebook wasn't embedded deep enough into the media landscape, the company is reportedly planning to launch a new third-party commenting system within weeks. "This new technology could see Facebook as the engine behind the comments system [sic] on many high-profile blogs and other digital publications," sources tell CNet. Facebook is reportedly reaching out to top media companies and blogs as launch partners -- a move paidContent considers "possibly more noteworthy" considering that a Facebook commenting system already exists.

Unlike Facebook's existing "social plug-in" service, however, the new system involves "handling the log-in and publishing" and automatically "cross-promoting comments on individuals' Facebook walls, and possibly even promoting them as well on media outlets' own 'fan' pages," CNet reports.

It's "easy to see Facebook and publishers working together on something even more robust," writes MediaMemo, noting that Facebook already manages comments for People.com.

According to Mashable: "It's another step in Facebook's ultimate determination to dominate the Web, to evolve from a destination site into a service that's integrated into every part of the online experience." If only by necessity, third-party commenting system providers claim to be well prepared for Facebook's forthcoming service

"We've been expecting it for some time ... and have been actively building Livefyre towards the things that we know Facebook will get wrong," Livefyre founder and CEO Jordan Kretchmer tells ReadWriteWeb. "Namely: Identity, personas, open data, and non-discriminatory social media integration."

What's more, "People generally want the option of commenting with different personas," Kretchmer explains. "Not allowing for that will diminish the overall amount of conversation publishers will see."

What publishers should be attracted to is the new service's ability to "surface high quality comments or help users identify trolls and spammers by assigning users an aggregated credibility score," writes Inside Facebook. "Since this score travels with users wherever the plugin is integrated, it should encourage more civil, thoughtful commenting."

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0 comments on "Facebook's Next Big Media Move: Comments".

1. Patrick Giblin from 451 Degrees Inc
   

   commented on: February 1, 2011 at 2:15 p.m.

   this seems to overlap very much with a software we have been slowly developing for the past few years...could make for interesting conversations in the not so distant future.

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