The news through Google goggles

Yesterday the WSJ story on Google’s plans to allow comments on news stories made the rounds in our office. I was pretty tied up so didn’t have a chance to read the article until today. I’ve had a few conversations with people and come across a few discussions since yesterday. One person thought that this was a “marked departure” in the way news is done since now there’s an opportunity for people who are quoted – or companies that are covered – to supplement or comment on a story.

I guess I just don’t see this as being such a radical thing. Google is going to allow vetted comments (at this point they are soliciting comments) to appear on their news page; but not in the context of an article itself. To read the news, a visitor will still need to follow the link to the original source leaving the comments behind. It sounds to me like a more restrictive version of Digg – news with comments from a chosen few – but without any of the colorful community commentary we’ve come to know and love.

And it isn’t like Digg is alone in allowing the community to add their thoughts. Mainstream media sites like USA Today have had this capability for some time. In their case, readers are able to rate stories (positive ratings only) which helps determine how high on the page they appear.

And just in case you haven’t heard – blogs have been providing a channel for anyone to say pretty much anything they want about stories in the news (or anything else for that matter) for kind of a while.

So what does this development mean for PR pros? Well, it may mean that you’ll be able to add your two cents on Google’s news pages – which could be a very cool thing; but if you’ve got two cents to contribute, there are plenty of places you can do that right now.

Frankly, were it not for the fact that this came out of Google, I don’t think the Journal would have even considered covering the story.