The TalkBack Reader Response System was one of the first systems used on the Internet to allow people to respond to articles posted on a web site. It was first used at the Jesse Berst's ZDNet Anchordesk news site. It was created by Technical Director Jon C.A. DeKeles.
Principle
The TalkBack system of Anchordesk allowed readers, once they came to the site, to respond by a form on the screen. This data was then sent by email to the editors and was also written to a data file. The data was imported into a custom Access Database Publishing system. The editor could approve the post, and also respond to the post. It was one of the first interactive system created for use on the Internet for a news publication.
Anchordesk was one of the first sites that used email to send news to readers on a daily basis. At one point emails went out to almost 3 million people a day.