Today, I have been exploring this seemingly powerful toolbar addition created by none other than Google. Basically it let's you leave comments on any web page in a side bar that users have the option of downloading, contributing to, and reading in the form of comments relating to the content of that very web page.
Essentially it can effect the gravity of any web page by making it relevant in a social media aspect. Think of one of your web pages have hundreds of comments posted to it, all with no work on your part. All of a sudden it becomes a social spotlight because of it's content!
The majority of comments around the forums and blogoshpere on this launch day though are more closely compared to some kind of tragic home invasion, where webmasters keep mentioning things like "Google has no right to add something to MY web page" or "Hey we're going to put up a huge billboard beside your house and let anyone who wants to write on it" or "What is the benefit of anyone and everyone being able to comment whatever they want on any website? How exactly will that help the internet?" or "And it will be misused by the bad guys. Just look at what has happened to some other "reporting" services. I won't call them by name here but we all know who they are" and finally readers "I dont think ANYONE should be able to comment on my site effectively in the context of my site if viewed through google chrome or whatever- without me having any control over that"
Yes, those quotes are from webmasters, who may not realize it, but they are in fact publishers, open to all kinds of criticism and perhaps accolades. In my view, notwithstanding the fact that the service may (slight chance) yet still fail, this community comment power will help bring the deserving content to the top, and will punish automated blogs, article theft sites, and plain old useless trash that somehow manages to get indexed.
All this of course remains to be seen. As a webmaster though, it's best to explore such a service instead of beating it up before you have even downloaded the tool bar.
No comments:
Post a Comment