Everytime Facebook release something new into the developer community it splits opinion like a shiny, new Apple product orchestrated by Steve Jobs. It leaves one half of the media raving about the amazing new opportunity that it offers, whilst the other half jump on the ‘Facebook is trying to take over the internet’ bandwagon. This love/hate reaction is fairly typical with any high profile launch at the moment.
The latest ‘social plugin’ from Facebook, allows user commenting on your website. It’s clearly a play to drive more adoption of facebook’s technology in the world of online content. A number of existing ventures with similar functionality, such as DISQUS, must have cringed when this announcement was made. The clear advantage that Facebook has is the ubiquity of people having user accounts. Typically blogs that encourage comments ask you to provide some personal information, e.g. your email address, only then are you allowed to leave a comment. This solution removes a lot of these barriers and is welcomed by many as a great way to start a conversation on your site.
The plug-in from Facebook looks like this when implemented…
Facebook Comments - embedded in your website...
Will the introduction of Facebook Comments mean the death of the trolls online? The removal of anonymous commenting on websites will be welcomed by many website owners and media outlets. The Facebook solution firmly places the name and photo of the person, right next to the comment they post. It also removes the need of website owners and authors to track down your online haters and publically embarrass them 
It certainly will go along way to combatting the old school trolls…
As one online annoyance begins to die out with the introduction of digital innovation, another digital pest appears to be emerging. The Guardian recent covered the growth of astroturfing and the story they tell really does provide a scary insight into a whole new fantasy world that’s slowly becoming a reality. Simply put Astroturfing is the creation of a digital army of fabricated people that can be let loose on a forum, blog, etc to leave a clear preconceived opinion or message. If astroturfing is allowed to develop unregulated it has the potential to create a whole new army of digital trolls that could tear this new social web apart.
Update (6th March 2011)…
An example of the new Facebook Comments system can be seen on the Great-save.com blog. This uses Graham Swan’s WordPress plug-in for integration.
interesting read (esp as an owner of several blogs) i’ve got to admit that despite being a happy facebook user, i have a nagging disquiet about anything that grows to dominate a medium as much as facebook is attempting (succeeding) and i’m not sure they need to be hoovering up comments from everyones blogs as well now.
and on a total aside, i particularly like the term astroturfing, mainly because i’m a QPR fan and i grew up in the era when we had the first astroturf pitch so it has positive connotations (despite this negative new use you describe above).
cheers for the comment Jason. It’s a really interesting one, for some brands/sites Facebook Comments brings together their community of Facebook Likers (much preferred Fans) on to their Blog and vice versa. It feels a little like natural progression, but as you’ve said there is a fear about global domination…
Astroturfing is without doubt a far more scary and real danger, much like traditional fans felt the plastic turf at Loftus Road was going to be to their precious hallowed turf
This its cool article !