Google is taking an interesting approach to reader comments with its Google News service:

We’ll be trying out a mechanism for publishing comments from a special subset of readers: those people or organizations who were actual participants in the story in question. Our long-term vision is that any participant will be able to send in their comments, and we’ll show them next to the articles about the story. Comments will be published in full, without any edits, but marked as “comments” so readers know it’s the individual’s perspective, rather than part of a journalist’s report.

So if you were hoping to be able to comment on just any story - like on many other news aggregation services - you’ll be disappointed.

No details are given on how the company plans to verify the identities of those leaving comments. I’d also be curious to know how the company plans to aggregate comments. If someone leaves one on, say, a New York Times article, will the comment be passed on to other stories from other outlets also covering the same story? If not, commenters will have to choose their article carefully to maximize exposure.

I’m interested in seeing how this plays out. While I think it could be quite interesting to see the perspectives of those involved in a news story, I also think it’s a bit limiting. Google News has a big audience. A commenting system of some kind would probably engage a LOT of readers and spark some very interesting dialog. But I understand that it would be very hard to manage, moderate, etc.

What do you think about this change? Will it influence your choice of news outlets to know that the folks involved with the story could be commenting? Or do you prefer an open forum where any reader can express themselves?

[Via Pandia]