Starting this week, Google will feature reader comments for the
stories on its Google News homepage. But the comments won’t be from
ordinary readers.
In a blog post to announce the
new feature, Google said it will try out a new mechanism for
publishing comments from a “special subset” of readers, people or
organizations who were mentioned in the story.
Google said its long-term vision is that any participant will be
able to submit comments, and Google News will display them
next to the articles about the story.
“We hope this will help us increase the number of diverse and
meaningful points of view on the news,” a Google spokesperson told
internetnews.com. The spokesperson said Google’s hope is that
insight from actual participants will both help readers understand
the news and cover views that may not be well-published or well-
understood within the current coverage.
Comments, Google said, will be published in full, without any edits,
but marked as “comments” so readers know it’s the individual’s
perspective, rather than part of a journalist’s report.
The product feature remains in an “experimental” stage. For now,
Google has only launched it in the United States, though plans for
expansion into other languages and editions are under consideration.
