I got tired of how hard it is to follow all the interesting conversations happening in the comments. It’s just tedious to go back and check for updates. So I decided to do something about it.
Let me introduce you to co.mments.com.
It’s a simple idea. Bookmark a conversation you want to follow from your browser, and get all the new comments delivered to your feed reader. The co.mments server takes care of finding out new comments, grouping them by conversation and keeping track of the ones you’ve read.
Right now it will work with most WordPress and MovableType blogs, Blogger, Flickr and Digg. More coming up.
It’s the first release, so be patient. It’s rough around the edges, not all the features are there yet, and it’s not the fastest server in the world. But it’s functional and you can try it out today. And if there’s a feature you want, or an improvement you can think of, just let me know.
Update: I’m getting a lot of traffic from MetaFilter, so I went and added it. Now you can also bookmark MetaFilter discussions.
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Hi there,
First, co.mments looks awsome! I just opened an account and started testing it. I’ve encountered a bug with special (accented) characters (like we have in French) on a WordPress blog using UFT-8 encoding. The characters are not properly encoded/displayed on the co.mments site and in the feed.
All the best,
JackSim
not yet, and I apologize to everyone who can’t use it with non-English sites right now. I’m going to start working on better international character support.
Wow, if this work, it really looks like the definitve solution to his :).
I’ve created MyComments (mycommets.idslab.com.ar) a time ago, is very used in the spanish blogosphere, so I’m telling you this with some knowledge on this subject ;).
There’s just one thing I don’t understand… How can you parse the new comments?!?! Since they have no standard or any marks to indetify them!?
Greets! Diego
Have we all completely forgotten RSS Comment support?
@ Diego
Some blogs are good about structuring the output. Finding the post is the hardest part, I’m still fine tuning that. But with WP, MT, Blogger, Flickr and Digg, the comments are easy to identify.
@ Scott
I occassionally use RSS comment feeds, and I provide one to all my readers. But not all blogs provide them (WP does, but Blogger doesn’t), and they’re very hard to spot on the page.
I just want something that’s simple.
Assaf – I hear you, but what I’m saying is that shouldn’t blog developers (many of whom are rushing to add CoComment javascript support) spend that energy with the spec we have that works today? Should the entire blogosphere’s comments be aggregated by this company?
After a quick bit of testing, this looks great – thanks. I especially like that it tracks all comments (unlike coComment, which only seems to pick up comments left by other users of that service)
Don’t suppose you fancy adding support for MetaFilter (which is where I found out about co.mments – http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/49168)
I will be adding support for MetaFilter, and Upcoming.org.
Scott, I’d love to see more RSS support out there, and I’d like to see RSS get easier to use from the browser. I also want something I can use today to track comments.
Hum.. your idea hein?
What about http://www.cocomment.com/ ?
strange.. very strange…
MetaFilter added.
I’m only commenting so I can follow the conversation. I’ve been wanting something like this that worked. I signed up for something similar last week that absolutely didn’t. Yay for working!
Abby, you don’t have to comment to follow the conversation, just press the bookmarlet, and it will start tracking all new comments.
Wow. Really like it. Your parsing the posts and comments is absolutely impressive.
Tried something similar with http://commentstrack.net in late 2004, but we failed. Our requirements probably were to high. But you did a very good job.
Only negative thing is the centralization and bondage to your server. Thought about releasing the script for everyone to use on his own server?
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I love the idea–just what I’ve been looking for–but there seems to be something wrong with the RSS feed. I’m using NetNewsWire as my RSS reader, and it doesn’t appear to recognize the feed you provide.
Hmm… Perhaps you’ve fixed the problem. That comment just showed up… If so, many thanks!
Testing things out – I tried tracking a Typepad blog. It worked in adding to the tracking list, and correctly getting number of comments. However, it doesn’t show updates when I add more comments to that particular entry, even when I click ping.
Let’s see if this thread is updated correctly!
Nope, my comment above didn’t push the tracking count – any idea why? Am I missing something?
it’s still in the queue for updates.
it just popped out of the queue, so it looks like the queue size is about 10mins right now. there’s a test post from:
http://countersink.blogs.com/sink/2004/09/test.html
also out of the queue with 6 comments.
Ah, ok. Thanks – I figured when you pinged it, it would be an immediate update.
Now, the next question – I create BlogFusion (www.blogfusion.com) and want to make sure my upcoming release works as well as it can with your functionality. Do you have developer specs somewhere?
Jake, did you get my e-mail? I’m still working on developer docs, but I sent you a brief summary by e-mail.
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I like co.mments better than cocomment.com: http://www.chipstips.com/microblog/index.php/post/117/
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It’s coconut. Assaf, I suggest beoing able to receive updates via email. I got this idea from feedwhip.com, which tracks comments plus any change in websites.
coconut, I’m working on just that feature.