Facebook is launching a commenting system that could be used to comment on blogs and online publications. Caroline McCarthy of Cnet reported about this citing some sources familiar with the product and said, “This new technology could see Facebook as the engine behind the comments system on many high-profile blogs and other digital publications very soon.”
The third party commenting model isn’t new, however. Already there are startups like Disqus, Livefyre and Intense Debate based on this concept. But, if Facebook enters into this, the scenario would be different. Users can access the platform using their Facebook account and would be able to like/vote for a comment. All the bloggers or digital publishers, will be able to sync the comments between their Facebook Pages and websites — comments made on either will be visible on the publisher’s site as well as the Facebook Page.
McCarthy in the report touched a very important issue, “Facebook, of course, is already very present in blog comments. Currently, a digital publishing outlet–say, a blog or a newspaper’s Web site–can integrate Facebook’s developer API and allow users to “connect” to their Facebook accounts…” One might wonder, then why Facebook wants to launch this new platform. Because all the bloggers or digital publishers, who use Facebook Connect API can’t sync the comments on their websites and Facebook pages. But this platform will make it happen. This is something everyone would want, but only Facebook will provide.
Facebook is also going after major media companies and blogs to partner with for the launch of this product, reports McCarthy. This is being spearheaded by the recent hires of Nick Grudin and Andy Mitchell, who previously worked at Newsweek and The Daily Beast respectively as media business development executives.
Facebook had been trying this new platform on their blog back in October. Back then, the commenting platform looked complete and upto the standards of its smaller competitors. Facebook had mention then:
We’re currently testing a new comments plugin on the Facebook Blog and Facebook Developer Blog that incorporates feedback from users and developers and features around authenticity, social relevance, ranking, and distribution. We’ll have more to share in the coming weeks.
Now, as this news broke, Facebook has responded again:
Based on feedback from developers about ways to improve our existing comments plugin, we’re testing an updated plugin that leverages authenticity and social relevancy to increase distribution. We’re testing the plugin on our Facebook Blog and Developer Blog but have no further details to share at this time.
It won’t be long before Facebook makes this live and once it does it would revolutionise the web again just as the “Like” button did post its launch. It won’t be long before Facebook does conquer the web becoming defacto internet identity provider.