If you read gameshogun via the website, you would have noticed the “5 Stars” below every posts. If you are reading via feeds (XML/RDF/Atom/RSS), you may have noticed the words “Rate this” at the bottom of each post.
That is Outbrain which I found out early this year by reading a couple of popular websites and blogs. B2evolution have its own rating system – a built-in and a plugin. However, just like any other blog and CMS out there, these are restricted to your own blog/site – no sharing, it is closed, detached.
And in today’s Internet Age, it is all about discovery, openness, Community, and sharing. Outbrain provides that, a simple concept expanded to become a discovery tool.
Follow up:
We are one step closer to the realization of the One Web Community I talked about in May 2008. This is when we are going to start using services that talk to each other and where we have the freedom to choose which platform we want to use without getting disconnected from the world.
Back then, I suggested to Outbrain and Disqus if they could talk (in both senses) to each other and develop a partnership and integration of their two services. Outbrain, a rating and discovery service together with Disqus, a comment-defragmenting service.
A few weeks ago, sometime 27th October, it materialized. I saw something new with my Outbrain widget, a new link called “comment”. When I checked the link, it directs to my Disqus comment. I was one of the first few users that Outbrain enabled the new feature as part of their initial testing.
Is this it? According to Outbrain, “We just launched our first integration with Disqus, the popular comment system.” In other words, there are other plans, more integration are to come between the two services, which is great news!
If you are not yet using Outbrain, then you better start considering this service. Outbrain provides a “recommended” post box where other Outbrain-rated articles shows up. This is a two-way feature, by letting other rated posts to show up in your site, your Outbrain-rated posts also shows up on other Outbrain-powered sites. This is openness and that is the right way today.
(However, if you do not want to participate in the openness spirit, you can opt-out anytime, what will show up instead are rated posts from your own blog/site. But before you do that, please read this and this, know the benefits of Outbrain for you.)
They brought the service to the next level by integrating with Disqus, a Comments 2.0 service. Outbrain and Disqus gained plenty of new audiences and users because of this cooperation. For example, a Disqus user J. Phil, just added Outbrain after reading about the integration.
This integration opens a new world not just for bloggers but to readers and commenters alike. You discover new articles to read via Outbrain (which were rated by readers like you). You leave comments on these articles via Disqus. You keep track of the comments turned disqussions via Disqus. You discover even more blogs and commenters like you. Then you discover yet new interesting articles via Outbrain, and the process keeps going on and on.
Imagine that chain. Imagine if the number of blogs and websites who installed Outbrain and Disqus together grows. This partnership and future integrations they have in their plate will make bloggers, readers, and commenters to interact with each other and create a community.
Daniel of Disqus said, “We like Outbrain and hope to do more with them and other complementary services with this approach: simple benefits that don’t require additional fiddling with options.” Now that is One Web Community. It is better than re-inventing the wheel or buying services left and right, those days are over and done.
Congratulations to Outbrain and Disqus, and thank you for being Open and believing in Community-ness, Collaboration, and Integration.
Other Outbrain news:
b5media chose Outbrain
Help Outbrain to get on WordPress.com!
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