coComment is a soon-to-be-available free service that tracks the comments you post on other people’s blogs. With it, you can:
- keep track of all your comments in one place
- share a unified map of your comments with others (see the example)
- republish your comments on your own personal blog
- get alerts when people respond to your comments
This is an exciting move towards the connectedness I wrote about here previously. If successful, services like this one will effectively turn the Web into one massive forum, but with all the freedom of personal web publishing.
That said, I don’t think coComment has all the answers. For instance, as this Web-wide conversation platform develops, what should be posted as a comment and what should be posted on your own blog? If you use coComment to do both, how do you unite the two separate streams of conversation that may result? These are some of the interesting questions that will need to be answered and soon if the panacea of unrestricted online conversation that they propose is to be realized.
For now, coComment remains in an invite-only beta phase (one that I’d sorely like to participate in), but you can sign up to be notified of its upcoming public launch.
February 6th, 2006 at 10:49 pm
[…] coComment is far from perfect - I’ve outlined a few problems with it already on my blog here - but it’s still a great tool. It’ll be an even better tool once they work out some of the kinks. It is, after all, still in beta. Bonus: A nifty little piece from Kevin Yank at Sitepoint.com about coComment. Snippet: That said, I don’t think coComment has all the answers. For instance, as this Web-wide conversation platform develops, what should be posted as a comment and what should be posted on your own blog? If you use coComment to do both, how do you unite the two separate streams of conversation that may result? These are some of the interesting questions that will need to be answered and soon if the panacea of unrestricted online conversation that they propose is to be realized. […]
February 7th, 2006 at 2:55 pm
I must agree this is pretty exciting news. Definitely an encouraging evolution in the connectivity of online communities.
Aside: Is anyone else tired of this guy piggy backing off of sitepoint blogs by posting where he references it in his own?
February 7th, 2006 at 8:04 pm
That’s actually our doing here at SitePoint, Gamermk. We figure someone posting about our blogs on his or her own site is equally valuable information to comments posted here, so we show them both.
February 9th, 2006 at 5:15 am
There’s a bigger picture here that’s going to shake up the industry.
February 9th, 2006 at 2:20 pm
Gamermk:
I’m not trying to start a flame war here, but I am bit annoyed. First of all, that’s how trackbacks work. I referenced his post, so a bit of mine shows up here, since logically, if I’m referencing his post, my post may have some relevance to what he’s talking about. But, Kevin already explained that.
The other thing is… You said “Is anyone else tired of this guy…”
What are you talking about? This is the first SitePoint blog post I’ve EVER trackbacked on.
I think you have me confused with someone else.