Google silences news commentary feature

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MOUNTAIN VIEW — Google has quietly dropped a feature that allowed people mentioned in news stories to comment on the articles.

The company said Wednesday that it ended the experiment in May when it redesigned the news section of its Web site.

Google introduced the commentary option in August 2007, but it apparently wasn't getting enough use to justify keeping it. As part of the service, Google spent time and money verifying the identities of the commentators.

With its revenue growth slowing, Google has getting rid of less popular services to save money. In the past year, the company also has closed a virtual-reality program called "Lively" and stopped selling ads for newspapers and radio stations.

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Who's leading the conversation?
This visualization below allows you to see the impact that each user has on the current conversation. The top row contains the group of users who have had the most impact, the 2nd row the group of users who have had the 2nd most impact (et cetera). Users with similar impact are grouped together, and the average score of the group is shown to the left of the group. The author of the article is also shown on the left, in their corresponding group. Each user's score is based on the number of comments the user has made plus the number of votes their comments have received. The scores are calculated relative one another, so while their absolute value is not particularly important, their relative difference does indicate a larger difference in impact on the conversation.
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{"commentId":7971381,"authorDomain":"mightyblogger"}

Don't buy into it, Google is preparing for Anti Trust actions coming against them from the U.S. fed and EU commission.

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    Reply#1 - Wed Jul 1, 2009 3:54 PM EDT
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