Does Anyone Want My Comments?

There’s something of a war going on right now, a war for your blog’s comments. Sure, any blogging platform worth its salt will provide you with a decent commenting system, but there are others who promise you more. Services like Disqus (which is used right now on this site) and Intense Debate say that they can add features, make commenting easier and encourage your community.

Now I am the first to admit that blog commenting right now sucks. When a company like CoComment, which does a mediocre job at best, can earn a living just by tracking and seeking updates on the comments you post across the Web, there is a serious problem. Users have a lot of reasons to prefer centralized commenting tools as having two or three commenting accounts beats checking dozens of sites for updates.

But what about bloggers? What do we get out of the deal? Though I’ve kept Disqus here on IS for some time, on PT I’ve been bouncing around from comment solution to comment solution trying to figure out what is best for my blog. I’ve tried nearly every service out there and the only conclusion I’ve reached is that no one, repeat no one, really wants my comments.

That is, at least not bad enough to create a truly compelling service… Read more

Blogo: Not Ready for Prime Time

*Article Updated* When I heard about Blogo, I could barely contain my excitement. A blog editor just for the Mac that had full screen editing, full WYSIWYG control, multiple blog management, image resizing, Twitter integration and simple previews.

I could barely contain myself. When I raced to download the application for my 21-day trial I practically had my credit card in my hand. I almost bought my copy outright but stopped myself to give the software a try. I’m very glad that I did.

Though Blogo certainly has a lot going for it, advanced bloggers are going to want to keep away. It’s feature set is just to limited for people that require advanced manipulation of text and even basic posts are more difficult to post in Blogo than they are in the WordPress or TypePad editing panel.

However, those are the problems that can be fixed, there are other problems that seem to be a bit deeper into the development culture of the product. Read more

Next Automattic Buy: Too Lijit to Quit

WordPress search sucks. There’s no nice way to put that. If you’re using running WordPress and are using the default search engine, your visitors would likely find it faster to get the information they need with a bus ticket to your house.

Though most of the platform is great, the search has always been the pits. Unfortunately, even as media handling, plugin installation and other features have grown up and become big boy tools, WordPress search has remained as daft as a speak and spell.

However, Automattic has this nice habit of buying up companies that fix their own weaknesses. Need blogger profiles? Buy Gravatar. Commenting system sucks? Buy Intense Debate.

So, in that spirit, I’d like to suggest their next big purchase. Lijit.

It seems simple enough to me. WordPress search stinks, there’s no easy way to fix it, Lijit solved the problem for Automattic and is making a tidy sum doing it.

The pairing seems natural to me at least. But I could be wrong… Read more