Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Google News now embedding comments

Not long ago, Google launched 'Comments by people in the news'. Literally, a direct interaction mechanism for people being mentioned on Google News Pages.

The feature is quickly picking up steam and, unless I just haven't noticed(??), they're now embedding some of them right on the news page. (Click on the graphic if it's small).

The same page this morning has 5 articles where notable people at various activist organizations, think tanks, etc. commented on the news stories, and were just one click away.

This feature will be interesting to watch evolve, especially on the politics page.

Can Google accommodate the reactions?
How will they choose who to embed, and who not to?

Worse case scenario, the note at the bottom covers it :)
"The selection and placement of stories on this page were determined automatically by a computer program"