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by corrys 3767 days ago
I am curious to know which other apps you refer to. You answered you question yourself actually - mobile integration is key. iOS and Android extensions allow users to add comments not only to any page in the browser, but to all URLs that other apps share. Like Tumblr posts shared from Tumblr app. On another note - public comments do not necessarily mean that you need an active instant discussion. You can leave a review, for example.
1 comments

Honestly it was quite hard to actually find them, weather that means I over-estimated the amount or that they have simply failed I don't know. I think a bit of both.

Maybe this [0] and this [1] fits the bill, both of them have very few users.

I still don't see how mobile will make it work, you will still have no idea if there is something going into the button and as I said if you go there to read something you will never ever find another comment because of the massiveness of the web. Even if you write a review, who is it for? The chance of someone reading this review, on this app, on the specific page for a product they want is so small it is not even funny. And writing a review usually means you do it for either the "stats" of writing reviews which you now don't get, or for others to read, which they just won't.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love for something like this to succeed and thrive. I just don't see it happening right now.

[0] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dropchat/eaejhpdja...

[1] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/retort/ianfcbdiagd...

Thank you for your thoughts - I appreciate this discussion. I think in the beginning it will best work on bigger websites with popular commenting sections and strict editorial policies. Take The Guardian for example. They disable comments very often, moderate them aggressively - I would love to be able to discuss their content on their website without their control. Another user case is reviews on websites that more savvy users find not trustworthy. Scam websites etc. Being able to read actual user reviews there could be invaluable.
That's a good use-case I guess.

I had an idea that you could have a feed where peoples comments are showing up. So when you'd press the extension or open the app you'd see "oh people are using this app and this is where they are commenting".

Then Birdy itself becomes the "network" and each comment made is more likely to be seen by other Birdy members.

Thanks for the suggestion. In the future I would like to add a dashboard where users would be able to see comments from all sources they are interested in. Just a single feed for all comments in the system might be overwhelming.