Disqus Gives Users What They've Been Asking For

Our portfolio company Disqus has released a new version of their third party comment system. This is a big release with a ton of new features. But the one that everyone has been asking for is "native" wordpress integration. What this means is as follows:

* Improved platform integration including WordPress plugin 2.0
   – Powered by the new developer API
   – Comments are SEO friendly
   – Automatic data sync between Disqus and the local database
   – Seamless import/export of old and new comments
   – Moderate right from the WordPress Admin

Now you can use Disqus on WordPress and get all the benefits of the Disqus system and not lose any of the benefits of native comments on WordPress. You keep your SEO, every comment is synched into WordPress’ comment database so if you leave Disqus you’ll have all your comments in WordPress, and you can moderate comments in WordPress.

I love disqus because it amplifies the conversation on my blog. If you want to try it out but have been nervous about some of the issues people have raised, now is the time to give it a spin.

Disqus also announced today that over 30,000 blogs have adopted its comment system. That’s a pretty good number and it means that when someone comes to your blog to leave a comment, there’s a really good chance that they are already registered and have a profile in disqus. That’s a big deal.

#VC & Technology

Comments (Archived):

  1. Joe Conyers III

    This is great news. Going to install this now.

  2. Bill DAlessandro

    Hooray! This fixes everything that bugged me about Disqus. It’s definitely a value add for me as a blogger, for my readers, and for me as a commenter.PS – I can now get avc.com from behind my work filter. Did you sort things out with Websense, or did my IT department just get smart?

    1. fredwilson

      i went to google and used their webmaster tools to tell them about the new ownership and make sure they are crawling the new domain. but beyond that, i don’t think we did much. I am so happy that avc is not getting blocked anymore. one less thing i need to worry about!

  3. Matt McLaughlin

    Upgraded my family blog and imported old comments in minutes. Flawless and love the new features!

  4. NICCAI

    Does this apply to Tumblr too?

    1. fredwilson

      Tumblr has no native comment system so there’s no syncing to be done. That said, if you want comments on your tumblog, I think disqus is the best optionFred

      1. NICCAI

        Yes, you’re right, but the notion of pulling in the comments fromdisqus on tumblr’s server side versus onload via js would be acompelling integration point.

        1. fredwilson

          Indeed it would be. I guess that’s something tumblr would have to do or at least have to help do

  5. fnazeeri

    It’s an interesting tool, Disqus is, but I’m suffering from buyer’s remorse right now. I switched over to Disqus comments on my blog (http://www.altgate.com/) and while the new service is great, my old comments didn’t migrate as promised. Fooooop! Gone are all the comments from the past year and a half. Ouch!I’ve emails and posted on the Disqus forum…hopefully they’ll read their comments! ;-)PS, a better title to the post would be, “Disqus giveth…Disqus taketh away!”FN

    1. obscurelyfamous

      We couldn’t find any errors originating from your account. You have to select to import your comments in after you’ve installed the plugin. Have you started the migration process?And we absolutely read everything. 🙂

      1. fnazeeri

        I followed the instructions to install, but (obviously) haven’t completed the migration. Can you point me to the instructions for completing the import?

        1. obscurelyfamous

          We can better support you on forum.To answer your question, after unpackaging the plugin, you should click “Install” under Comments > Disqus.

          1. fnazeeri

            Daniel, thx for the comments back. I posted in the forum here (http://disqus.disqus.com/mi…a while back but am gettin’ no love over there. Any chance I can get somehelp migrating old comments? Can you point me to instructions on how to dothis?FN

          2. obscurelyfamous

            I’m watching the other thread.

      2. Sean Loyless

        Daniel – KICK ASS.I tried to import my comments but it failed.. Probably due to the age of the blog itself and the multiple versions of WP over the years.Otherwise, I love the new changes!

        1. obscurelyfamous

          Your website is one of a few that we noticed having issues with the process. We’ll contact you as soon as it is resolved.

          1. Sean Loyless

            Of course! I feel somewhat special.. somewhat. 😀

  6. Don Jones

    Big improvements – I’m a huge fan of Disqus – they are very customer-centric.

    1. fredwilson

      Listening to customers and building what they ask for is a big part of getting it rightDisqus does that particularly well

  7. Roman Giverts

    Fred,There’s 4 posts about your portfolio companies in the last 3 days… I hate to say it but this blog is starting to feel like a bunch of advertising for companies you invest in. If I wanted to read about pinch media, outside.in, return path and disqus every day I could to go their company blogs.

    1. fredwilson

      fair pointBut its what’s been on my mind latelyI think if you look back at the posts over the past month or year, you’ll see that I strive to strike a balanceThe outside.in post was really about the hyperlocal blogging phenomenon that I am hugely excited about and wasn’t just about outside.inThe pinch media thing was about their desire to hire two college interns, not a plug about their businessBut I take your point and I am sure many others are thinking it and not saying it and for that I thank youFred

      1. Roman Giverts

        I say it cuz i know you’ll read it 😉

      2. Dorian Benkoil

        yeah, I noticed. But, hey, it’s your blog — I don’t have to read it if I don’t like it.

    2. kenberger

      come on– the dude makes it clear that this blog is about a few subjects, chief one being his investment interests. His current investments talk would seem to be expected.I suppose that this post is indeed the pluggiest of his recent ‘plugs’. But even so I think it’s pretty far from shameless. Does a great job of summarizing the service’s new features in a much more efficient way for me than going to those company’s blogs.btw, i first learned of this product release via techcrunch and a couple other blogs, but skipped their coverage to come here to get the scoop, because even though Fred is obviously biased here, I knew he’d give a concise and clear description of the services. AND he usually even throws in negatives too that you’d never see if this was just a sales pitch. Often even publicly pressures his PortCos to add features when he sees something lacking.(man, this sounds like a plug for Fred!)

  8. Dave

    I will try it, as they seem to have overcome my objections. Thanks for the news.

  9. centernetworks

    FYI – there are a good bunch of detailed analysis posts on today’s Disqus launch – most go into more detail than the one you linked to at TC.

    1. fredwilson

      Yeah I saw all of them. I wish there was a way to grab all the links from techmeme and put them at the end of my post

  10. Nate

    I’ll wait for reports of successful WordPress integration from others before trying, but this is great news. Looks like Disqus has eliminated the dealbreakers.You can always tell a great service because they make it easy for you to leave, knowing full well you won’t want to. An example of this is Gmail. You can have it just forward your email to another account. Yahoo and Hotmail don’t do this (last time I checked).

  11. mathew

    what is the search-friendly piece? the comments dont look like they show up in the source for this page – is it just that they show up over on disqus?

  12. kenberger

    This is a very impressive long list of improvements for one (still fairly early) release. Great job, Disqus.I guess the only thing i’m not seeing immediately is that it might make some feel better to have the comments page under their own domain, eradicating the need for http://avc.disqus.com/, for example (and instead expecting to see that info under avc.com’s WP admin control panel, if he were on WP). BUT it is entirely possible I’m not understanding and this release does take care of that, as i haven’t looked closely yet.Daniel- next up I’d suggest to greatly promote the voting feature. I wrote details on this and will email them along. I think that part would make this offering hugely more social, fun, higher-quality……

    1. fredwilson

      Domain mapping for the comment blog is something I am hugely into and havebeen asking for as wellI also want to be able to put my ³look and feel² template on itIf I could get all of those things, it would be linked to off of my avc.comfront page (like I just did with my tumblog)fred

  13. ss

    ddd

  14. peteonrails

    Love it. I’ve been wanting that for months.

  15. OurielOhayon

    If i may i think the most important feature is missing: installing in 2 clicks without code manipulation for Typepad. i don t know how many users know how to use advanced templates there, but i think it is a very little minority. i would love to use Disqus but i could not deal with that. so i went to intensedebate that has solved that issue pretty nicely

  16. laurusnobilis

    When I first saw the Disqused I loved it. I placed it on my web site and I must say that it is very good. A lot of options and very easy to install.

  17. jer979

    So, I love Disqus, but I’ve noticed an issue when it’s integrated with Zemanta (which I also love).Take a look at my http://jer979.disqus.com/ pagethe Zemanta code seems to get pulled into the comment thread.Just an observation. A little unsightly.

  18. Busby SEO Test

    Simple, easy to use and easy to follow friends, I like this tools

  19. gadget reviews

    Disqus also announced today that over 30,000 blogs have adopted its comment system. I love Disqus.

    1. fredwilson

      I think it is way more than thatI think its closer to 100k

  20. obscurelyfamous

    Agreed, Stewart. We decided to release the WP version first but MT is on its way.

  21. howardlindzon

    stewart – we could be brothers

  22. fredwilson

    tell me about itryan. i totally agree with you. FriendFeed can do that with the new disqus API, they just need to make it a priority. i hope they will.

  23. kenberger

    no joke– separated at birth?!