Today Facebook announced the comments box plugin for mobile, which will automatically appear on the mobile version of the sites that have already integrated the Facebook comments box plugin. Gannet newspaper sites including the Statesman Journal (Salem, Oregon), Burlington Free Press (Burlington, VT) and the Detroit Free Press are already using the Facebook comments box plugin.
In the StatesmanJournal.com’s Facebook Comments FAQ section, it explains the switch to users, stating that it aimed to “hold commenters accountable for their actions through Facebook” in a effort to keep the conversation “interesting and stimulation for the rest of us.”
Once a news site installs the Facebook comments box plugin, anyone who wants to comment must first have an active Facebook account.
While this does avoid the annoyance of creating an entirely new login for commenting on news sites, the dependence on Facebook isn’t entirely welcome by news readers.
Facebook has been rapidly expanding its mobile capabilities over the past six months.
Facebook Timeline is available on Android and iOS. Facebook games now appear in the mobile news feed.
Just last month, Facebook Android surpassed Facebook iOS mobile users.
