[fiatjaf]

I've thought about something like this for ages also. But lazy always prevails.

Now, do you know something about a Google product from some years ago that did something like this, but was discontinued?

[fivedogit]

Here's my explanation of Google SideWiki... near the bottom.

http://www.words4chrome.com/eli5/

Q: “What happened to it?” A: “It had several problems. (1) sidebars are the worst (2) web site owners hated it, presenting a threat to Google’s core business, and (3) because Chrome had negligible market share in 2009, it had to function in all browsers at once, harming UX. Hence, the sidebar. And the name."

Also, it was open to everyone. Words is designed to select for -- um -- not everyone. Internet explorer users, for instance.

[fiatjaf]

Precisely. I've been trying to remember that name for months.

[walterbell]

Did you mean Google Wave? It was open-sourced as Apache Wave.

[michaelmior]

I don't recall Google Wave having website commenting features.

[walterbell]

It was a federated protocol for real-time editing, one could layer various workflows (group editing, email, IM, wikis, comments, etc) on top of that protocol.