WordPress Acquires IntenseDebate. Disqus Just Got Big Competition.
September 23, 2008 8 Comments
VentureBeat reports that Automattic, provider of WordPress blogs, has acquired social commenting application Intense Debate. [Update – IntenseDebate has a post about this]. As a blogger on WordPress.com, I welcome this. I’ve seen the power of Disqus for other blogs, and I’ve wanted it here. But there wasn’t a way to add Disqus to WordPress.
In an earlier post, Could WordPress.com Create a Disqus Killer?, I wrote about what would happen if WordPress enabled a similar social commenting system. Here’s a quote from that post:
Imagine if a lot of those folks streamed their comments into FriendFeed. The viral nature of FriendFeed would be an accelerator on that volume. A WordPress.com commenting system would dwarf disqus.
WordPress.com has the built-in advantage of already hosting millions of blogs and comments. Disqus is still in its infancy in acquiring new blogs.
If Automattic is serious about this, they should enable a new commenting system to work on non WordPress.com blogs as well. As a blog reader, once you have a profile set up, you’d like to use it everywhere.
Interesting to see where this leads.
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About Hutch Carpenter
I'm Not Actually a Geek 
This has the potential to be huge. If the millions of wordpress.com blogs out there get the ability to turn on ID at the flick of a virtual switch, that’s big!
No wonder Daniel was really nervous yesterday.
This certainly could be a game changer. If WordPress moves fast, they could really stomp out the other guys, however I doubt they really have the fire to do it, I bet the Disqus team is certainly formulating a strategy today.
Engine,
Agreed, the sheer scale of it is incredible. We are talking 8 million Wp.com and WP.org blogs, plus the thousands ID already has. There will be no one in the same neighborhood when it comes to numbers or adoption.
Caleb,
I think it will be interesting to see how Disqus approaches this. Personally, I think this is a checkmate situation for Disqus, JS-Kit, and others. They will have to find their niche. With ID on the top two blog platforms, there survival is certainly in question.
Phil, Caleb, Paul – yup
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No two ways about it… Disqus is now officially under massive pressure. Daniel Ha is a legend — I love his energy — but, gee, he’s got his work cut out for him now.
-Alister
Nice blog btw
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