Comments on: Q&A On The New Google News Comments

By: Tom Foremski

Tom Foremski — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 19:21:11 +0000

Google can be easily trumped. The news organization itself can publish comments on the story much more quickly than GOOG. And it can preauthorize everyone since it knows who is in the story. Would GOOG then republish those comments?

GOOG does things by machine not by people. This is an experiment that won’t last long, it has no idea what it is getting into.

By: Charbax

Charbax — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 06:14:09 +0000

I don’t think this is done manually over emails. Google already has the verified informations to many people. Basically Google can know if the Google Account in question really is owned by a specific person by checking their verified credit card on file, checking for an AdSense account, verified email, account creation date, IP adresses that used the Google Account, basically Google has already many ways to identify a user against a real life identity.

I guess there could simply be these features in the Google Account space “Request to post post verified comments in Google News for: – Your Name – Your Company – Represent somebody – Represent a company”

In case the user wants to represent someone or represent a company, then Google needs to eigther simply verify through the Google Account of the person, or in case of representing a company, then Google proceeds to verify with the company. One easy way to verify is to upload a special html file to the root of the company’s official website, for example ibm.com/specialfilewithcodes.html then that would most probably guarantee for Google that this user is in fact representing IBM. If the Google Account has a long verifiable history and all that, it will speed up the process of Google being able to verify the user’s identity and activate it being able to post comments on whatever Google News article that includes the name or company name in question.

By: Simon Taylor

Simon Taylor — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 05:40:56 +0000

Still no clarification of how Google News will determine who can comment as “an expert in the topic of the story” (Google News Help).

This is a potential open door for PR agencies to pitch clients, and for third party commentators to build their own reputation.

Also, have any PR agencies been approached by Google News as part of their efforts to solicit comment?