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Facebook updates Comment Box for mobile

Mobile version of the discussion feature automatically appears when the plug-in detects a user on a mobile device, and allows comments to be displayed at 100 percent.

Steven Musil Night Editor / News
Steven Musil is the night news editor at CNET News. He's been hooked on tech since learning BASIC in the late '70s. When not cleaning up after his daughter and son, Steven can be found pedaling around the San Francisco Bay Area. Before joining CNET in 2000, Steven spent 10 years at various Bay Area newspapers.
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Steven Musil
Facebook's mobile Comments Box. Facebook

Facebook updated its Comments Box social plug-in for mobile to improve user functionality on mobile sites, the social-networking giant announced today on its Facebook + Media page.

The Comments Box, already in use on many media sites, uses social signals to highlight the most relevant comments from friends, friends of friends, and those that are most liked and active in discussion threads. Users can then share the comments on their Facebook friends' News feeds, including links to the original site.

The updated plug-in will automatically appear on the mobile versions of sites that have Facebook's Comment Box enabled. The mobile version automatically appears when the plug-in recognizes a mobile device and will ignore the width perimeter to allow comments to be displayed at 100 percent.

Facebook is promoting the social plug-in as a way to improve the quality of online conversations and increase user engagement, and as a method of driving traffic to sites.

"By holding commenters accountable for their actions through Facebook, the hope is that this will help keep the conversation interesting and stimulating for the rest of us," Gannet executive Paul C. Grzella told the social network.