All the talk in the last 24 hours has been about the new commenting system that Facebook are going to being introducing within the next couple of weeks. The commenting system will be used on 3rd party sites and will allow publishers to have a far deeper integration with Facebook. It means that blogs like this could be powered by Facebook comments and Facebook would be weaving itself further in to the fabric of the web alongside other initiatives like the Facebook like button and Facebook connect. Without knowing every little detail about the new comments feature I thought it would be a good idea to look at this from a higher level and see if this was a good or bad idea and would effect it might have on publishers, website owners and bloggers…
Independence
I love the social features that this will bring to websites and blogs and I’m sure Facebook will make this an amazing product but the whole web should not just become “Facebookized”. The reason I love blogs that I read every day is their unique content, design and community so I don’t just want to see cloned Facebook style sites all over the web. I’m fine with the like button and Facebook connect but by looking to effectively power commenting systems and control even more of 3rd party sites Facebook are just pushing a little hard in to other people’s territory. I know it’s your own choice to implement this but if it grows like everything else Facebook does most publishers will be left with little choice but to include it on their sites.
Change SEO Even Further
The comments would essentially be stored on Facebook’s servers so that content in theory would belong to them. Comments help blogs with SEO and commenting on either people’s blogs or websites is a great way of having your own website or blog found. With this move Facebook are looking to change the landscape of the web and remove links between websites and blogs and have those links (on profiles) go back towards Facebook. I’m not massively interested in having people find my Facebook profile and would rather they found my blog but at the very least Facebook should allow you to link through to your business page instead of your profile.
Make You Reliant On Facebook
Facebook is starting to become a large driver of traffic for publishers and something like this will increase it further. I would imagine that people leaving comments and liking comments will have that action feed back to their wall meaning more people coming to publisher’s sites. It’s a it of a vicious circle though because the more people become reliant on Facebook as a traffic source the more people will look to weave it in to their websites. Facebook connect and the like button are already taking over and if comments are to be powered by Facebook now as well we might as well just have entire websites on Facebook.
Eliminate Spam
Any website owner of blogger will tell you that one of the biggest problems are spam comments. By needing to have a genuine Facebook account to comment this could change the face of commenting and drastically reduce spam. It also means that people would have to use their actual real identity meaning that people posting nasty ananymous comments could be a thing of the past.
Reduce Friction For Commenting
To comment on sites you usually have to leave your name, email and website (optional) and some sites go as far as forcing you to sign up or log in to comment. These steps can be enough to put a lot of people off commenting but as you’ll mostly already be logged in to your Facebook account commenting will just be a case of typing your thoughts without giving away any other data.
Potential Baklash?
Bloggers are pretty protective over their blogs and they are very personal spaces. We’ll generally add things in that are of use to us and improve the site but I’m just wondering if Facebook are pushing a little too far this time. I know It’ll probably drive extra traffic via Facebook and an added sense of community to blogs but they are a very personal spaces and I’m just not sure Facebook will be welcome everywhere. Get this wrong and mess with bloggers and Facebook could be in for another backlash. Interesting to see Facebook basically taking over the web one feature at a time!
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