Google Indexing JavaScript Comments From Facebook, Disqus, & More

This isn't exactly video-related in and of itself, but the news itself could have far reaching implications for anyone trying to rank video and other content on Google. Why? Because the Googlebot has evolved. Google can now crawl and index AJAX & JavaScript comments like the Facebook & Disqus comments systems used by millions of websites.

Google Indexing JavaScript Comments From Facebook & Disqus

That's right--your Facebook comments and Disqus comments are now visible to Google, and, by extension, the rest of the world (potentially). Originally noticed by Digital Inspiration, the news has since been confirmed by none other than Matt Cutts himself.

Here's a screenshot Digital Inspiration shared of a Facebook comment made by Robert Scoble:

And here's that same Scoble comment as a Google result:

While there are no clear plans from Google yet on how exactly we might see this kind of indexed data used by the search engines, I can only assume we're likely to start seeing comments from our friends rolled into keyword or topic-based search results. And heck, we may see comments from non-friends too, perhaps influential people like Robert Scoble.

It's also worth mentioning that legions of Facebook users will probably continue to be blithely unaware of this new development. But now that Facebook comments on publisher websites can be indexed, it might be time to change how we use those comments, lest we find ourselves embarrassed in the future.

Of course, as video marketers and content promoters, this development should come as very welcome news. The comments are often what helps drive social and sharing actions. At the end of the day, what do we want? We want people talking about our video, right? And now when they do... it's index-able by Google. Lots of promise and potential in a piece of news like that, if you ask me.

What do you think?