When I browse weblogs, I would often like to be able to do one or both of the following two things quickly: 1) send rapid ‘gut reaction’ feedback (for instance a smiley) to the author, mostly to thank people for taking the time to write something I liked; and 2) offer a URL that points to something which I think relates to the topic. These reactions aren’t really comments; they are more like gestures that would let the author know that there are readers out there who appreciate the stuff even if they aren’t posting comments. Another reason why I think it’d be worthwhile to investigate ‘gestures’ is that weblogs and comments are literary formats which require a certain level of competence to author, and this makes it hard for those of us who haven’t developed a routine for this mode of expression (especially non-native English speakers) to participate in the blogosphere.
Here’s an attempt to illustrate what I mean, as a right-click menu photoshopped over the NetNewsWire UI.