Inline and Contextual Comments

• collaboration
• ideas
• socialmedia

It’s been a couple of weeks now since we got our first looks at Google Wave, and the dust is starting to settle. In the process of the dust settling for me, I really started question why we aren’t already actively using a key component of Google Wave on the web. The component I am referring to is being able to comment inline (or contextually) on web content such as blog articles.

On doing a bit of a trawl through the web, it’s not that it hasn’t been tried in the past (see things like LineBuzz and Probloggers comments on LineBuzz). In general, I think the concept makes sense and there are definitely times that I would like to comment specifically about a particular paragraph or phrase in some text rather than the entire article. So why hasn’t it worked in the past?

A Look at LineBuzz

Using LineBuzz is pretty simple and just requires the import of some javascript from their site. This is great, simple to implement and it means that you can potentially use it on any site, and could include something like a Tumblr blog (as an example I’ve set it up @ http://damonoehlman.tumblr.com/) which doesn’t support comments out of the box. It is however a little on the ugly and clunky side (a screenshot of the buzz window is displayed below):

The Line Buzz Comment Display

Additionally LineBuzz gives you the ability to delete a comment that has been made on your site as a means of moderation:

Some comments on the Problogger post expressed concerns around moderation, so this is probably something that could use some tweaking (maybe just to simply allow users not to auto-approve comments).

Why didn’t it work?

Does it just come down to how well it has been implemented in the past? Was the implementation that LineBuzz came up with too clunky for people, or are people just not that interested in targeting their comments at particular pieces of text in an article? Is it more natural to comment on the whole text of an article and thus inline commenting only has value in a collaborative editing space rather than publish and feedback space?

Not sure that I have the answers to the above, but I do know that we humans are fairly shallow creatures so if something doesn’t look and feel nice we aren’t likely to use it. Add a few functionality flaws on top and you have a recipe for poor product uptake.

Could something like it work now?

Personally, I think it will. With a strong trend towards twitter and micro-blogging, I believe people will be more likely to micro-comment on things they have read. Integration with existing social media is key though, and if was implementing an inline commenting solution myself I would definitely be looking to use something like twitter as the delivery mechanism. Basic flow for use would be something like:

1. Read article on web, and be compelled to comment on a part of that article
2. Select the appropriate portion of the article
3. Input comment on text, submit comment.
4. Tweet is delivered regardless, and comment is submitted for approval by article author. (I guess there could be a problem here with people responding to the tweet and the comment not being approved, might just need a moderator “kill comment” function).
5. Other approved (not killed) comments are also displayed on the article.

In my opinion, it could work. If the guys at LineBuzz were to put a fresh coat of paint on their interface and actively improve the product, I think there is real potential for some success. It’s not Google Wave, but it is something that could be useful right now. Should LineBuzz improve their product and give us something to talk about? Should someone build an alternative? Maybe.

Have thoughts on the above topic? Leave a comment below.