Google News Comments Allowing Links

I was a bit surprised when I saw this comment in Google News from Philip Morris USA, the tobacco company. No, I was not surprised so much at the comment, or where it was coming from, but rather the content. Namely, there was none. Instead, the comment consisted of a link to Philip Morris’s website and their policy on the issue discussed in the news story.
So, this is okay for Google News now? I understand that a link is in some ways preferable to the commenter copying the page from their website and duplicating content, but it seems so cheap, and renders the entire act of having Google News comments pointless. If all you’re going to do is link, then Google should just provide a list of related web links and junk the entire comment system. The comments need to be quality, or they […]

Original post by Nathan Weinberg