Automattic Acquires Intense Debate

Back in June I posted that “something is in the air with comments.” Indeed, over the past 6 months, a number of smart users/observers of the social media space have echoed the refrain that oftentimes the comments to a blog post, and/or a twitter thread, provide the most valuable content.

The smart guys at Automattic, although generally cautious not to jump on every social media fad that comes around the corner, have also been watching the emergence of comments as an important piece of the blogging equation, and have been studying the space, and the players, over the course of the summer.

Today, Automattic announced that it is acquiring the comment service Intense Debate, a portfolio company of the TechStars startup program out of Boulder, Colorado. I’m excited to see the service rolled out across the WordPress platform, and, hopefully, for comments to play a more central role not just amongst the earliest of early adopters, but across the blogosphere as a whole. As a blogger, I can tell you that there is little more rewarding than to receive comments to a post, and I am willing to be that a service like Intense Debate will improve the experience of commenting and blogging as a whole.

I’m also excited to see Automattic extending their product offering with the addition of small teams that have made important innovations in the space.