DISQUS

Dave Zatz · 9 months ago

Interesting implications, indeed. As long as it stays amongst friends, it should be ok. If it goes public, I'll have to turn off the full feed.

Adam Ostrow · 9 months ago

yea, I don't have much of a problem with the current implementation as I think it will have a very marginal effect on traffic, but if it moves to All Items, I sure hope they make it exportable at the very least.

swag · 9 months ago

Google simply has to do this. Every layer of social networking tends to hermetically seal the layers below it from commentary and discussion, so they may as well establish their own.

How many of us have seen a blog post with only a couple of comments and yet found hundreds of comments on the Digg (or FriendFeed, etc.) reference to the same post? It's important to enable a sphere of user interaction in the community you're trying to build. And for Google and their social networking efforts, it's something of an imperative to at least attempt to capture some of that.

Adam Ostrow · 9 months ago

Right, but the big difference with Digg, FriendFeed, etc is it's not the full text of the original blog post ... you still kinda have to visit the site that published the article to get the context and make a comment.

alexander-social media guy · 9 months ago

I've been using the Google reader sharing function for quite a while since google friend connect has become more prominent. Being able to comment on friends stories and see what they've commented on is very cool.

Alexander

Louis Gray · 9 months ago

The feature simply trades conversations between friends, and isn't for a global audience, the way these are. It also is not exportable (like Notes), and the comments don't display at the shared items URL. It's really hard to get tied up in knots over something like this.

Adam Ostrow · 9 months ago

I'd actually rather it be exportable and an option on all items than friends-only and closed ... the current setup just seems weird.

Kim Werker · 9 months ago

I've wanted this feature since I started following what my friends share. I like that it's not public, and I'm excited to be able to have a private conversation that otherwise had to happen over email. In short, YAY!

Marito · 9 months ago

Google Reader is a great product! I'm glad they keep making it better!
This is a great addition, no doubts.

Jason Cairns · 9 months ago

Very interesting article

richiepear · 9 months ago

Any estimates on how long until ads start appearing in Google Reader?

Adrian · 9 months ago

Doesn't Topix do this? Haven't they been doing it for years?

Adam Ostrow · 9 months ago

no, like Digg, they only show an excerpt of the story

Bharatheeyam · 9 months ago

It is a good idea. It help us to get serious comments on our article from friends side.

imma · 9 months ago

I think you end up with a different focus of conversation on the private comments - there is some overlap, but it's _similar_ to the difference between twitter & email
Mostly I think this will result in more conversations, although you won't see the extra ones and comments on blogs might drop a bit :-/

Marina Rose · 9 months ago

Nextel has something similar on open forum. They also rate customer’s taste in movies, so you can see “70% 50% or 30% like you". Can you rate your friend’s tastes Google Reader? Or it‘s too intrusive to do that? If someone needs private friends-only conversation on shared items, what’s e-mail for? Just saying. I’m not a tec person.

Mia D · 9 months ago

Given Google's history of rolling out half-baked features initially and then improving on them, I wouldn't be surprised if they make these comments exportable in future but until then, it's very limited in scope. In theory, it sounds great for "private" conversations, but folks who typically comment on blog posts are looking to have a public discussion and thanks to Friendfeed, it's already possible to have conversations around shared items from GR. So it would be interesting to see how many actually use this feature and to what extent.

Mia D · 9 months ago

Given Google's history of rolling out half-baked features and then improving on them, wouldn't be surprised if they made comments exportable. I can see why Google decided to get on the social bandwagon and in theory, it sounds great for "private" conversations. It will be interesting to see how many actually use this feature and to what extent. Most people who comment on social sites including blogs are looking for a public discussion, so "private" commenting is very limited in scope. Also, given that we can already have comments/conversations around shared items in Friendfeed, it's not that relevant unless the assumption is that folks will stop commenting elsewhere now that this feature is finally available on GR, which I think is highly unlikely. .

craig · 9 months ago

I think it's a good addition, something simple friends can use between themselves

kalboard · 9 months ago

well one day , google well tell you don't wear white shirt go with green

gudipudi · 9 months ago

Google always comes out with some good concepts...google reader will now become more social

Douglas Wade · 9 months ago

Interesting, more options for the web!

mattmcb · 9 months ago

I'm curious to see how this is going to work. I'm excited to see the new feature.
Try the best homepage

Joseph Miller · 9 months ago

This article's title is a bit of a linkbait. Google Reader has let you share items with comments forever and they are simply expanding on the idea. Don't publishers have the option of doing what they please with their RSS feeds or does GR do something fancy to pull down whole articles?

sam · 8 months ago

Interesting news but i think not a smart widget for sure.
http://newzburp.com

Suits for Toddlers · 6 months ago

I've been reading along for a while now.
I just wanted to drop you a comment to say keep up the good work