Update: YouTube has officially announced the feature:

Blogger has extended the comments feature it annoucned last year, which lets users embed comments and the commenting form below blog posts. The feature has been extended to display profile images next to comments that blog visitors write.

Comments on blogs posts and articles have in the past generally been a good measurement of how people have engaged with content, but as the web becomes more social and "real-time," the conversation is going all over the place, and there are other ways that people are engaging in conversation about content (this is why shareability is so important by the way).

I am a strong believer in the idea that comments increase the value of articles. This holds true on small blogs as well as large news sites. Comments expand the conversation, and can provide insight into the original subject matter that was lacking from the piece to begin with.

Isn’t it ironic that a social-networking site with “Face” in the name won’t allow you to put multiple “faces” behind your corporation/brand?

Comments are the backbone of the social web. Everything is going social if it has not already been that way for some time. Why is that? People are social by nature. It’s how we communicate. It’s how we learn. It’s how we teach. Do you find comments to be valuable resources? Share your thoughts.

Google has launched an enhanced version of its comments gadget for Google Friend Connect. With the gadget, users can easily translate comments that aren’t in their language native.

Google is not not not building a social network. Really. They’re not. They’re just adding features to every product ever made to enable you to communicate and otherwise share information among your peer group and store all your information in a centralized place. That’s soooo not a social network, so I don’t need anybody telling me about how Google Reader’s new comment feature shows that they’re a social network.

Six Apart has made it simple for nearly anyone to sign in to TypePad Connect with other existing accounts via OpenID. If you have an account with Google, Yahoo, Blogger, Vox, LiveJournal, Wordpress.com, or AOL, you can easily sign in.

I’ve always felt that comments have the ability to enhance articles, as they expand the conversation and often provide more thoughtful insight into the topic being written about. Of course this is not always true. There is plenty of spam, and always a fair amount of unconstructive criticism, name calling, and general ugliness. But it’s a small price to pay for making content more community-driven, which still overall, I feel is more useful to the end-user in the long run.

YouTube now has a page listing videos specifically available in high definition. Also, these HD videos now open in a larger player than before, pushing features like comments, the ad box, or related videos down the page a bit. Note you still need to click “watch in HD” when on the video page.

This is a topic destined for a courtroom one day, bitter enemies formed along the way: Can a blog publisher collect blog comments and publish them in a book? We addressed this topic weeks ago, with no definitive answer. The question arises again today as a result of simultaneous, otherwise minor, occurrences.

A new feature should start hitting Facebook profiles as the company adds the ability to comment directly on Mini-Feed stories directly from someone’s profile.

Google News started allowing experts to comment on articles about seven months ago, but it’s highly unlikely that the average person knows this.  The simple reason: the comments are rare and hard to find.  A new feature solves half of this problem by gathering all the comments in a single place.

WebProNews previously reported how Kentucky State Representative, Tim Couch, proposed a bill that would not allow Kentuckians to comment anonymously on the Internet.

Hey Everyone, The Zune Software is currently up on Zune.net.

» You can find the software HERE. System Requirements

Before we had Google Reader, the biggest kid on the RSS reader block was Bloglines. While Google has taken that title, away from the Ask.com owned service, Bloglines has been back to the gym recently and added some bulk.

Bloglines has rolled out a slew of new features today, including:

In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a little obsessed with online reputation management.

Here are some numbers about blogging and social networking sites according to Nielsen Online. They just released November’s numbers on the top 10 social networking sites. The biggest gainers are Flixster (where you share movie reviews) and LinkedIn, a social network for professionals.

Conformity often creates a feeling of comfort, but it also starts to generate acceptable social norms that soon become the de facto standard for the way things get done.