Comments on: I want to be able to read & write comments from Google Reader

By: Shaun

Shaun — Fri, 23 May 2008 10:42:21 +0000

I agree Justin… Being able to read comments and comment from Google Reader would be hot. It plays on the whole theory that no know cares about your site or wants to visit it! I am all for this!

By: Paul Arterburn

Paul Arterburn — Mon, 19 May 2008 17:23:23 +0000

Take a look at gReader Comments (http://www.sixteenseven.com/gReader/). It brings Disqus-enabled blogs’ comments right inside Google Reader for that read/write effect you are trying to find. Now, obviously not all blogs use Disqus (http://www.disqus.com)…but they should.

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 19 May 2008 16:31:35 +0000

It’s a good point. Comment are already supported since at least the RSS 2 spec, but unfortunately few readers and syndication platforms make use of the capability.

Writing comments from software is trickier, as it would necessitate the creation of a standardized interface for posting comments. That’s simple to do, but would be a spammer’s dream.

Using a widget is essentially the same as bundling the comment-posting logic along with the syndicated comment’s content. But it’s questionable how much of an advantage this confers over simply prompting people to visit the site in their browsers after reading the syndicated comments: either every widget installation is a one-off, which is just as inconvenient as clicking through, or you use a standard interface and run into the spammer vulnerability problems born of homogeneity that I mentioned above.

By: Chico

Chico — Mon, 19 May 2008 15:23:12 +0000

Hey Justin. Can you tell me more how you use google reader? I am new to it and not quite on board with it.

By: Herbert

Herbert — Sun, 18 May 2008 03:34:32 +0000

I am at least grateful that Google Reader (which I have very recently started using for intercomputer-convenience) tells you how many comments have been left. Having comments feed though, might be too taxing on the system, maybe?
Though it would be a nice option. Especially if it kept track of which threads you have commented on in a separate folder or something and informs you when there are new comments.
At the moment, I simply star ones I comment in; otherwise I forget to check if there are new comments.

There is a Google Reader Summer of Code project or two. Maybe we should poke them and see what they think? It’s cheap, eager, student labor….