The widget, which can be integrated into practically any website with a few lines of Javascript code, pulls in comments and reactions to posts from across the web. That means, in addition to seeing a real-time sampling of recent comments on a site, it also pumps in data from Twitter, Digg and other social networks.
What's nice about this approach to real-time reaction data is that publishers can customize what content appears and from what sources. For instance, a publisher can set up a site-wide recent comments widget which would show all site activity across the web, or it can keep the widget focused on a particular section.
Furthermore, the types of comments that are filtered in can also be customized. If you want to bring in comments on the site, but not reactions on Digg or RT's on Twitter, you can do that as well.
Comments are displayed with a user's name and avatar, as well as the first few lines from their comment. The source of the comment is also displayed in-line.
Real-time interactivity is something that more and more publishers are embracing. Echo's solution is focused on capturing content from all over the web and making it accessible on publishers' sites. As we've seen with the success of Facebook's "Like" buttons, the ability for users to easily find and share what they like with others, and to see what others are saying is increasing pageviews. With the right customization and page placement, we could see publishers getting increased traffic on recently discussed stories because of the real-time widget.
Ultimately, this is just one more step at unifying the social web. The first step in that process has been to create identities that can be used across sites. The next step is to make reactions and comments visible across discussion platforms.
What do you think of the aggregation of real-time comments across social networks?