We’ve had a few questions from clients about the new feature that Google introduced within its news service on August 8th. The a new feature allows participants in stories to append a comment to the story. Comments are verified as being submitted by a relevant participant in the story, and then published in full. The service is currently experimental and only available in the United States.

Google’s new feature is representative of a larger shift in the media landscape. As consumers shun one-to-one information sources in favor of many-to-many participatory streams, traditional news outlets and PR agencies must adjust their respective avenues of information shaping and sharing. Sure, most news services allow anyone to comment on articles, but this feature is unique in that story participants can add comments that stay with the story. We believe that clients need to embrace a more integrative way of communicating, and encourage them to participate in online dialogue to ensure they have a fair share of voice. However, as with most digital media, one size does not fit all or apply to every client situation.

Clients have a great opportunity to extend the story, clarify their point of view, or correct misinformation when commenting on articles aggragated within Google News. However, given that manual intervention is required to facilitate the comments being published, a lag time may be experienced. Additionally, posting a comment may extend a story, which may or may not be desirable. Lastly, Google reserves the right not to publish all comments. Therefore, clients should not rely solely on Google News comments as their only means of responding to published news reports.

Clients deciding to comment on stories aggregated by Google News should:

• Evaluate the opportunity carefully on a story-by-story basis, considering the following:
  • Is there misinformation that needs to be corrected?
  • Have critical facts been omitted from the story?
  • Can I extend the story in a meaningful way for readers?
  • What are the implications to this story gaining prominence and being extended in other consumer-generated forums?
  • Is the comment I plan to post completely true and defendable?
• Be completely transparent when posting comments, being clear about who you are and your connection to the story. Google will make efforts to confirm identity prior to publishing comments, but it is very important that commenters are sincere to avoid backlash.
• Be entirely unassailable in your comments as misinformation will be challenged and potentially used to create a larger news story.
• Consider the ramifications of the comment you post, especially in competitive situations, or if other story participants may take issue with your point of view.

Clients wishing to have comments appended to a Google news story should review Google’s guidelines and follow them carefully.

If you believe the international business press, you could be forgiven for thinking that there’s only one search engine game in town - Google. Internet portals such as Yahoo! and MSN are billed as mere also-rans.

Looked at from an Asian perspective, things look different. For while Google has solidified its lead in most English-language markets (in India it has a 70% share of the search market, and it tops traffic rankings in Australia and Singapore), in others it has its work cut out.

Yahoo! is used by almost 80% of Japanese internet users every month, with 65% using its search engine, and also leads in Hong Kong. China’s Baidu accounts for 60%+ of search marketing expenditure while in South Korea Naver attracts some 70% of search dollars.

Like Yahoo!, Baidu and Naver offer a host of community activities in addition to web search, including blogging and discussion boards. Naver’s killer app is its Knowledge iN search engine (think Yahoo! Answers); with over 60m questions submitted, it has help fill a glaring hole on the Korean internet - a dearth of local language content. Naver now has over 26m registered users, and over 50%+ of South Koreans have set Naver.com as their default homepage.

In China, MP3 search accounts for over 20% of Baidu’s traffic. Other popular services include Baidu Zhidao, its social search tool, and Baidu Baike, a local language wiki encyclopedia, which now boasts nearly 750,000 entries. Baidu’s success comes despite Google’s Chinese language search capability being considered the superior and Adwords the more effective marketing system.

The lesson? That technology by itself won’t deliver the users (and the consequent marketing money) and that it pays to understand the needs of local users, for whom communication and networking are key activities online.

In east Asia, a search offering with a significant community component works best. The portal is alive and kicking.