Google Also Likes To Use FriendFeed For R&D, Reader Gets Conversations

Social Networking is increasingly pervading all aspects of our life

Google Also Likes To Use FriendFeed For R&D, Reader Gets Conversations

by Jason Kincaid, TechCrunch on March 11, 2009

It looks like Facebook isn’t the only site to draw inspiration from FriendFeed. Google Reader has just launched a new feature that gives users the ability to comment on items that have been shared by their friends, allowing them to hold conversations focusing on each individual story. In other words, it does almost exactly the same thing as FriendFeed (at least for stories shared through Google Reader).

There are a few key distinctions. For one, conversations in Google Reader are only be visible to friends of the user who originally shared a story (FriendFeed allows comments to be displayed to the public with input from users who aren’t your friends). But Google’s blog post notes that it has more for its new comment system on the way, and it wouldn’t be surprising if public sharing is on the roadmap.

Also important to note is that there’s apparently no way to export the conversations that are held on Google Reader. While this is likely because of the private nature of the conversations, it can’t be welcome news to services like FriendFeed, which thrive on being able to import activity from other sites.

We’ve heard that Google has been toying with this idea since at least 2007, when we noted why some blog owners may well be opposed to it. For those blogs that send out full feeds (rather than summaries or the first paragraph of their posts), this new feature could potentially move the conversation away from the blog and onto Google Reader.

Google Reader starts a conversation

3/11/2009, Google Blog

I'm a big fan of sharing (might be all those lessons I learned in kindergarten). And when I share something, it's always nice to get a response like "Thanks!" or "That was the funniest thing I've ever read!" Whether you're 5 or 50, you're more likely to share other awesome things if you know people are excited to hear what you have to say.

Google Reader makes it easy to read and share your favorite articles, blogs, and videos. In the last year, we've added new features to Reader like the ability to choose friends and share items with a note. But it did occur to us that the sharing process was incomplete -- there was no way to have conversations with friends about all those shared items.

That's why we're excited to announce that starting today, your friends will be able to reply to shared items with comments, allowing you to have conversations with your friends right inside Reader. Comments can only be seen by friends of the person who originally shared the item.
To get started, click "Comment View" at the top of your Friends' shared items in Reader, or just write a comment by clicking "Add comment" at the bottom of any shared item. For more details on how comments work, check out the Google Reader blog.