Disqus launches Blog Commenting App
Disqus, about which fellow blogger Ashish Singh had written about couple of months back, today finally launched it's feature-full blog commenting system. Among others, the YCombinator startup competes with Js-Kit, Intense Debate, and SezWho.
Context & Ripple Effects
Comment management has suddenly become a contested product category: Read/WriteWeb ran a positive review of rival Intense Debate just a day before this launch, signaling that publishers were actively shopping for alternatives to native blog comment systems. Disqus arrives with momentum of its own — Ashish Singh had flagged the YCombinator startup as one to watch a couple of months back, and today's launch turns that preview into a shipping product.
First-order effects
- Bloggers evaluating Intense Debate now have a second credible option in the same week, with Js-Kit and SezWho also in the mix — the choice among four hosted commenting vendors gets made on install ease and moderation features rather than whether to switch at all.
Second-order effects
- The named rivals must respond on distribution, since these products spread through the same blog-plugin channels; expect each vendor to push widget-style embeds and cross-site commenter profiles as the differentiator that locks in publishers.
Third-order effects
- If the category holds, blog comments migrate from a per-blog database inside each CMS to a shared third-party layer where a commenter's identity travels across sites — a structural shift that concentrates moderation and audience data in whichever platform wins adoption.
The trend: Blog commenting is shifting from built-in CMS functionality to venture-backed hosted platforms competing on commenter identity and moderation tooling.