Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) will allow people mentioned in Google news stories to post comments about the content. The reactions will be posted next to the content. Google News includes 4,500 English-language news sources.
According to The Wall Street Journal: "One key issue concerns who Google allows to comment on a given story and how it authenticates their identities."
Allowing sources for news stories and reporters to comment on articles seems like a fairly good idea at first blush, but on second thought is is probably an awful idea. Google says it will try to check the identifies of sources, but for tens of thousands of stories each day from 4,500 news organizations, that would appear to be as hard as searching for pirated content on YouTube. In other words, it can't be done.
Google's news response mechanism is likely to take on all of the bad aspects of message boards with people who have old agendas leaving anonymous comments that may be false or inflammatory. The idea is very different from letters to the editor sections where a very few responses can be checked accurately.
It sounds like a train wreck in the making.
Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St. He was editor-in-chief and publisher of Financial World Magazine.
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