Explained in detail on the official Google blog earlier today, the Google+ development team has integrated the Google+ commenting system into all Blogger accounts. After enabling the option within the Blogger Dashboard, a Blogger user will see both direct comments left by readers visiting their blog page in addition to public discussions taking place on Google+ after a user has posted a specific link to a blog page. Ideally, this allows the blog owner to respond directly to someone that shared their content and ultimately expands their reach.
When leaving a comment within the new Google+ comments interface on Blogger, users have the option of sharing that comment with specific circles on Google+. This is extremely similar to the design of Facebook comments.
While perusing the comments left on a blog post, users can selectively filter the comments by top posts or by people within their Google+ circles. Conceptually, this could allow users to curate a select group of people within a circle based off their expertise in a field. For instance, it would likely be more worthwhile to read the comments of professional photographers on a Blogger post about advanced dSLR lenses rather than the general public.
In addition to the Blogger changes that rolled out today, the Google+ team also launched a modification to Google+ Hangouts this week. Explained by Google’s Tim Calhoun, the team added a feature that automatically mutes the microphone on the camera used during a Google Hangouts session when the user starts typing on the keyboard. Rather than forcing the group to listen to annoying typing noises during a Hangout, people can take notes during the session or simply take care of other tasks on the computer without disturbing the entire group. When the muting function flips on, the user gets a notification on their screen. However, this feature is specifically limited for Hangouts that contain at least four participants.
