 I've been following with very close interest Google's latest experiment. They are now offering people the chance to comment on stories in Google News (here is Techcrunch's story on it). I know this is not exactly breaking news but I am a few days behind with things and I am catching up! ;-) My first thought is instinctively - has Google bitten off more than it can chew here? As Techcrunch points out, this is not something that can be automated. The only people that can comment on stories are people connected with that story. So that means that Google staff (real people who have to be paid and looked after, not little anonymous GoogleBots in cyberspace) have to check each comment. They have to (somehow) verify that person's identity, verify (somehow) that they were indeed involved in the incident, check the comment for anything libellous and / or inflammatory and then post it. Can you imagine the amount of work that would involve? What would be the turnaround time for each comment? What if someone disputes that person was really involved? Does the comment get pulled? Does Google investigate further? Would the news story still be a valid news story by the time the comment got out of checking status or disputes? These are all valid questions and I would love to hear answers to them. With a scheme like this, Google News has gone from being an effective news story aggregator to being little more than a glorified blog! Don't get me wrong, credit goes to Google for giving people in a story the right to give their side of the story online. But the sheer logistics of the operation will probably ensure that this Google experiment will never get rid of its beta label. In this situation, they have a grand vision but the vast resources required to carry it out effectively borders on sheer lunacy. Labels: google, news |
One of my immediate go-to sites each day is 
