(Updated)

This has been quite a week for all of us unhappy about missing the other half of the Conversation:  in rapid succession three comment-tracking products were announced.

First came coComment with a spontaneous (?) yet well-executed viral campaign that spread around the Blogosphere like wildfire.  Other than the “big names” supporting the launch, key to their overnight popularity was the fact that it really was the long-awaited  first (so we thought)  solution to a problem that’s been bugging so many of us.  I do like coComment, it has a lot of bells and whistles, and potential to do more.

Then I received an email from Diego who had launched MyComments a few days earlier, but only on Spanish-speaking blogs.  The original launch went pretty much unnoticed but when it got Scobleized, word got around fast … 

Originally I favored coComment, since it places the “burden” of a click on me, the commenter, whereas MyComments is dependent on the blog owner implementing a plug-in.  However, I did not realize that coComment still needs all other commenters to click their coCo-button, otherwise I get nothing…   That said, I really don’t know which approach is better, both leaving me dependent on others

Third time’s the charm:  today without much fanfare Robert announced co.mments, the third, and IMHO best solution.  Simplest and best.  No more dependency on plug-ins, other people clicking ..etc… it just tracks the thread and sends me RSS updates.  I still need a bookmarklet to mark the comment threads I’d like to follow, but that’s OK with me, at least I can be selective with which threads I really want to follow.

(While I am writing this, the site went down .. .at this point only the author’s blog is available.  I guess that’s what happens when your server capacity is not ready to be Scobleized… ) 

Related posts:

• coComment: Comment Tracking  
• At last, a way to track blog comments
• CoComment and the Conversation Index
• CoComment: semantically forked conversation?
• Testing out coComment
• coComment - Tracking Blog Comments
• Time spent in signal
• Comment Tracking with coComment
• Greasemonkey Hacks and CoComment Musings
• CoComment, MyComments, Co.mments

 Update  (2/14):  What a coincidence; just as soon as I declared co.mments the winner, my coComment box disappeared…  (Yes, I know, cheap shot, it’s just an error, but I couldn’t resist…)

Update (3/14):  Now that TechCrunch profiled co.mments, perhaps they will receive due attention    Talk about attention, here’s Steve Rubel. 

Tags: Blogs, Blogging, Blogosphere, Conversation, Blog Comments, Comment Tracking, Conversational Index, Tracking, coComment, myComments, co.mments, co.mments.com