Yet another service in the overcrowded blog comment field is JS-Kit who already have a conventional outsourced blog comment capability (similar to IntenseDebate and Disqus).
JS-Kit recently announced an extension to the service called ‘Echo’ which also includes any fleeting reference to your blog post, refreshed in real-time from other services like Twitter, FriendFeed, Google Reader and Facebook.
Echo isn’t generally available to mere mortals yet. Yes, you guessed it
- it’s limited beta, invitation only and curiously, you need a Twitter account to even request an invitation.
However, if your name is Michael Arrington, Guy Kawasaki, Robert Scoble or Duncan Riley, you are entitled to use the service which is fair enough as it works best for high volume sites with lots of comments
However, look at this example on The Inquistr of Echo in action on a live site.
Wow - just look at all those ‘comments’. Look again closely. Most entries are not comments at all. They are merely links or retweets to the article from Twitter or FriendFeed. The vast majority merely echo the main headline with no additional comment or insight.
Look again and try to find any meaningful comments where people are actually commenting on the post and expressing their opinion. Guess what. The vast majority are mostly classified as ‘via Comments’.
So, that’s three reasons, I won’t be installing ‘Echo’ on this blog.
- I don’t use Twitter.
- It adds no value.
- No-one ever comments anyway.