Found on Slashdot:

http://slashdot.org/articles/07/08/09/1429250.shtml

[story]

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ncl=1119040683&scoring=r&btclp=1#670f33 a2e31fc6c6

[link to sample commentary from story]


Essentially, Google news now allows commentary, with a twist:

Said commentary is validated and currently limited to story participants!

I really like this and think it should be explored more fully. Good on Google for taking a rational step forward.

We had Internet news, at first, sans commentary. Blogs arrived, along with "talkbacks". Blogs are highly distributed and currently do a fairly solid job of checking published information, and providing a lot of commentary.

All good, but troublesome in that they are self selecting (read specific blogs, hear one side of story, etc...) and, distributed. There just are a lot of fricking blogs!

Talkbacks, unmoderated are a mess. Everybody just posts stuff, and it's generally of little value. Some sites chose to moderate, but then we end up with self-serving comments being posted. Messy. I'll take the blogs before I really consider talk backs.

On a side note, we've got forums, like this one, where discussions take on some great context. They are a check too. Not sure where they fit in, so I'm just gonna note it and move on.

The Google approach has some serious merit. By limiting commentary to the story participants, Google adds value by limiting the number of third party posts. I think this is worth watching.

It also, means Google is doing more than just passing along information, or acting like a mere venue. I suspect there will be legal implications to this, not yet realized as law.

Such is the life of a trendsetter, visionary, etc..

I find this stuff very interesting and thought I would share.

Discuss?

Well, once Rupert takes over everything, checks and balances will be nonexistant. I just can't wait for the dumbing-down of the Wall Street Journal.

The Sesame Street Journal.

That's gonna be a bummer for sure.

The upside, if there is one, is new media forms getting more credence.

When Murdoch takes over the WSJ & Dow, I wonder if stocks will turn on the status of the latest missing blond teenager, or runaway bride etc...

Didn't think of it running that way.

Hope not, or that's gonna cause trouble for a lot of people.