Google+ Comments friends Blogger
A new feature in Blogger ties your blog to comments about your blog in Google's social network.
The latest move by Google to connect its pre-existing services to its social network automatically ties relevant comments on Google+ to blogs hosted on Blogger, the company announced on Thursday.
The feature is not on by default. But once activated in the Blogger Dashboard, Google+ comments made about a blog post hosted by Blogger will appear alongside comments made directly on the blog without any extra effort from the blog owner.
"This way you can engage with more of your readers, all in one place," wrote Google engineer Yonatan Zunger in the blog post announcing the feature.
Blog readers, he said, will have the ability to comment publicly or privately to Google+ Circles. Comment viewing can be restricted to just the top comments, only comments from people in the reader's Circles, or set to view all comments.
The feature can be activated in the Blogger Dashboard's Google+ tab by checking off "Use Google+ Comments."
While the impact of interweaving Google+ into yet another Google service may not have an immediate impact, it is another sign of Google emphasizing the increasing role it wants Google+ to play in its users' lives. Also interesting to note is that Google is once again investing some development energy in Blogger, which has sat idle for some time.