SezWho has announced a new release for their universal profile and reputation service which aims to enhance performance and provide new interface integration options. They’ve also announced feed incorporation with BlogCatalog, the blog directory service.

Additionally, SezWho has formed a partnership with Instablogs, the social news service. SezWho will now add their reputation management and universal profile system for Instablog readers, connecting personal brands from all over the Web into a centralized portfolio. Instablog readers can now take full advantage of SezWho features such as rating posts and content. This union will also mean readers will be able to find what they’re looking for quicker.

As for new features, SezWho offers new options for WordPress and phpBB users. There are four new universal profile templates including support for popular threaded discussion formats. There’s also support for local CSS and JavaScript, Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down ratings for posts, configurable pop-ups, improved support for filtering, support for multiple WordPress installations in a single database, and simplified upgrades.

The new SezWho release will help distinguish the service, as well as change the misperception that SezWho is a commenting system similar to competitors such as Disqus. In actuality, SezWho is not a commenting system that replaces existing platforms, because it does not manage comments. Instead, it provides a reputation and profile system that enhances user engagement and interaction, which ultimately generates more traffic and activity.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:SezWho Launches APIs to Challenge DisqusBlogCatalog Gets More Social with SezWho IntegrationInstablogs Community LaunchesSezWho Acquires Semantic Startup TejitSezWho Adds 3 New Partners to Power Comment Tracking Across WebVirgin Radio Turns Up the Volume with coCommentDisqus Challenges CoComment

Another day, another set of updates for another Google product. This time, it’s Google Docs that’s been updated with three fancy options, all three hinting at certain advantages Google Docs can have over desktop office applications.

Dictionary & Thesaurus enable you to look up a definition or synonyms for any word in your document from Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. It’s located in the tools menu, and it works for English only. Similarly, Encyclopedia lets you check out the description of any word from Encyclopedia Britannica.

Another new options lets you search for images from within Google Docs. Highlight a word, click Tools -> Search… using Image Search, and you’ll get the results from Google Image Search. Find an image you like? Just drag an drop it into you’re document, and you’re set.

All this can, of course, be done in a desktop application, but it shows how easily Google can take advantage of its many online applications and services and integrate them into their products. Now, if only Google Docs weren’t as buggy when it comes to formatting…

—Related Articles at Mashable - All That’s New on the Web:New Google Docs on Wednesday: What Features Do You Want?Google Docs Won’t Save Anything; I’m Going to LunchGoogle Releases Docs UploaderOffline Google Docs Access DeployedGoogle Docs Adds PDF Uploads and PreviewsGoogle Docs APIGoogle Docs Introduces Mobile Version

Source:Mashable!

You like Digg, but you’re sick of all those stories that don’t have anything to do with extraterrestrial sentient beings? Try out Alien Ufo Believers, a very young (and still somewhat buggy) site that’s all about UFOs and little else.

The site offers UFO-related pictures, videos, accounts and theories, and it’s up to the visitors to decide whether they’re real or fake. Unfortunately, using Firefox, I was unable to vote for items on the front page, I had to actually click on every individual item to vote, which is an annoying bug that needs fixing.

Other than that, there’s also some news and merchandise there, but the fact is that the site sorely lacks content. However, I somehow think that Digg’s concept of upvoting/downvoting would work really well with the UFO theme. In any case, the truth is out there, and it’s up to you to vote for or against it.

—Related Articles at Mashable - All That’s New on the Web:Digg Adds New Features to APIDigg Launches Digg WidgetsDigg Goes With DataPortabilityMetacafe Adds Digg SectionPownce Co-Founder Upset Over New Digg FeaturesDigg API, Baby!Digg Introduces Fully Threaded Comments

Source:Mashable!

Before Disqus, Intense Debate and SezWho entered the social commenting arena, there was coComment. When it first started, coComment used a bookmarklet to aggregate your comments across the Web into one stream, and later tried to make the process even easier by adding plugins. It didn’t offer too many extra features at first, so upstarts like Disqus and SezWho were able to get ahead quickly by integrating more social functionality and other features right out of the starting gate.

I must admit that I have never understood the growing popularity of the social commenting systems. Having comments hosted on someone else’s server where they could be lost forever has never appealed to me. Disqus recently added importing and exporting of comments to address the issue. It seems coComment is still hosting your comments for you in spite of a recent backlash by blog owners requesting comment ownership .

After checking out the beta site for coComment’s face lift, I was left with mixed feelings. Is it a better service than it was before? Yes, absolutely. The new and improved coComment offers many more social tracking features, social networking features and personalization options like a profile page. The company has also teamed up with Retaggr to give you a way to make a “comment business card” you can use to draw other people toward your comments in coComment.

One of the items touted by the coComment team when discussing the beta was a revamped design. The team is right, the new look and feel of coComment is much less crowded and more streamlined than the old version. Even so, I give Disqus a win here if you are looking for “pretty,” especially if you use the coComment sidebar. Once you open up the sidebar, it loses that nice sleek look altogether, and seems crowded and disjointed again.

A plus for the sidebar feature is having a way to follow comments in coComment in real time as you move around the Internet. I’d rather have this feature as something I could integrate into an existing toolbar, personally, but overall it is a nice feature. It just takes up a lot of room on my laptop screen as a sidebar, and makes it harder to follow my tabs.

Speaking of tabs, I am an avid Tab Mix Plus Dev Beta and FireFox 3.x for Mac user, who often has over 200 tabs open as I research articles and generally try things out. coComment’s beta did not play well with Tab Mix Plus or Colorful Tabs. Having the sidebar open caused some serious lag time and several freezes. Turning off Tab Mix Plus and Colorful Tabs seemed to help, but that is a deal breaker for me - any new toy has to work with the old toys as well or I can’t justify using it.

In the end I think coComment has made strides in the right direction. Adding rankings, groups, tags, profile pages, portable comment cards, notification via your MycoComment page and ways to explore the comments of others are all good things. Even so, the buggy behavior with my existing plug-ins is a deal breaker for me, and using any of these social comment services is something I do sparingly.

As for installing social commenting systems on my blogs, well, Disqus has taken a much needed step forward for me with its new import/export feature (and a step backward with reblogging). I’ll be really impressed at the first company that gives us a way to track comments from all of the social commenting systems (to some degree) in one place so we don’t have to maintain all the different profiles at each one.

—Related Articles at Mashable - All That’s New on the Web:coComment Adds Blog Plug-in for PublisherscoComment Yourself on FacebookCoComment Officially LaunchesCoComment Gets $1.5 MillioncoComment Version 2.0 with More Social FeaturescoComment Preparing Version 2.0 With More CommunityDanny Bonaduce Manages His Brand with coComment

Have you ever been stuck wondering what to post on your blog? Can’t seem to find a topic that suits the current situation? Well a new feature called "Reblogging" launched today by comment replacement service Disqus could help quench your thirst for a great post!

The Disqus reblogging feature allows you to easily click a button on any comment left on a blog using the Disqus service and post it as a full post on your blog. You can basically lift a comment from X blog and place it on your blog! So when you are stuck for a topic, just go to a popular blog that receives a lot of comments, click "Reblog" and bam… instant post.

While the concept of Reblogging works on a service like Tumblr, I just don’t see it as a value-add here. Who benefits from the Reblog process?

• The blog publishing the comment gets a juicy bit of content (that’s not in a script code)
• The source blog receives a seo-rich link back to the source - this is a great way to up inbound counts
• Disqus benefits as a seo-rich link back to Disqus travels with the Reblogged content
• Disqus also adds a link back to the commenter’s profile on Disqus
• The original commenter who spent time formulating the comment gets nothing

Just like I called out Disqus for "borrowing" traffic earlier this year, I am again calling them out (and understand I like Daniel and think he is a very bright guy!). Add a link back to the comment author’s blog instead of his/her Disqus profile. Then the service becomes more of a value to everyone and might be more beneficial to the community at large. I’d also wonder if Disqus users need to opt-in to this program - when I comment on X blog, do I automatically grant any blog or source with the ability to lift my comment and do as they please? What happens to context - it could easily be meaningless outside of the source discussion. We already see this happening when Disqus comments are posted on FriendFeed - the context is completely missing. This Reblogging feature could lead to some great discussions around comment portability and usage. Maybe we need a licensing model for comments.

In a perfect situation, the only links that would be listed are to the source blog where the comment was posted and a link to the commenter’s blog.

This new Disqus Reblog feature currently works on the Wordpress, Movable Type, TypePad, and Tumblr platforms.

Here’s Disqus founder Daniel Ha’s screencast of how the reblog process works. I hope there’s an opt-out button - I have no desire to participate with regards to this new feature.

More CN Coverage:
– Docstoc
– Scribd
– Twitter

Less than a day after Disqus announced the launch of their updated Wordpress plugin, blog comment replacement service IntenseDebate is out with their own. The IntenseDebate update will ship in private beta mode this weekend with a public release shortly thereafter says ID.

The updated IntenseDebate Wordpress plugin features a better admin control panel along with full data synchronization. This means that comments entered in IntenseDebate will also be sent to the core Wordpress install. This means that you can test IntenseDebate without the fear of losing comments should you decide to leave at a later point.

They have also updated the main IntenseDebate site with a "Swedish" look and feel they say. And there’s also updated Akismet spam protection. 

Check out our interview with IntenseDebate co-founder Jon Fox and our technical interview with developer Austin Hallock on our sister site HTMLCenter.

More CN Coverage:
– Docstoc
– Scribd
– Twitter

I’ve written about the three leading comment replacement services (Disqus, JS-Kit and IntenseDebate) a good number of times. Today Disqus is launching the second version of their blog comment replacement service. Disqus launched last October and since then has won over 30,000 content creators who use the service on their blogs and Web sites.

I spoke with Disqus CEO Daniel Ha last weekend to learn more about the second release of the Disqus platform. We began by speaking about my last post about Disqus where I noted that they were taking some of the traffic that should have been directed to the content creator for themselves. On the post Daniel said that the issue would be fixed that day but it wasn’t. However Daniel does say that the v2 release today fixes the issue and traffic should no longer route to Disqus but directly to the content creator.

The major updates in Disqus v2 are a new Wordpress plugin and a new developer API. The Wordpress plugin makes comments SEO friendly - meaning that any comments will have associated Google juice. Similar to what JS-Kit launched last month, all comments will be syndicated back to the original source Wordpress comment system - this allows you to leave Disqus at any time and not lose the associated comment data. There’s a new import process which makes it easy to import and export comments into Disqus. Lastly you can moderate Disqus comments directly from the Wordpress admin - no need to go to the Disqus site. My hope is that a similar plugin will be available for other content platforms soon.

Daniel also walked me through the updated Disqus Web site which now features a page for each member that is public. What this means is that if I signup for a Disqus account, my friends can easily track all of my comments on any Disqus-enabled blog. Daniel calls this a "comment blog". Here’s a sample of my comment blog on Disqus:

One of the interesting bits Daniel noted during our discussion is that he believes that he is a heavier commenter than the CEOs of his competition. He believes they went into the comment replacement business because, "it’s what’s hot".

There’s no doubt that the comment space is hot. From the message board application FriendFeed to all of the new comment replacement and reputation services, this space is one to watch.

More CN Coverage:
– Docstoc
– Scribd
– Twitter

We’ve written about all of the new blog comment replacement services over the past few months. I recently had a chance to interview IntenseDebate developer Austin Hallock on our sister blog HTMLCenter. Below is an interview discussing the business side of IntenseDebate with co-founder Jon Fox.

Allen: Can we start with a brief bio?

Jon Fox: I’m 23 years old and originally from Illinois. I have a BS in Math and Computer Science from Illinois College and am about 3 classes away from a Masters in Computer Science from Washington University in St. Louis. I started programming when I was 10 years old and have loved it ever since. I’m also that guy that was obsessed with stories of great entrepreneurs growing up and completely fascinated by the web startup scene in particular.

Allen: How do you describe the Intense Debate service?

Jon: IntenseDebate is a replacement to your stock comment system on blogs and websites. We provide a tool to better facilitate community and interaction by adding loads of new features. Some of my favorites include Reply-by-email (reply to a comment by replying in email to the email notification), threading, voting, universal profiles, reputation, and the ability to track a user and/or topic across blogs.

Allen: Why did you decide to start Intense Debate?

Jon: IntenseDebate was originally started as a 1-on-1 debate site. Users would pair up, make 5 statements each, and then the rest of the community could vote on a winner (as well as comment on the debate). We realized, however, that there were already debates and other great discussions happening all over the web, but the tools were completely inadequate (and hadn’t really ever changed). We ended up moving to put our emphasis on this problem instead, and the IntenseDebate you now know was born.

Allen: What’s the team look like?

Jon: We’re a team of 6 at the moment.

• CEO - Tom Keller
• Graphics/Design - Isaac Keyet
• Voice of the users - Michael Koenig
• Software Engineer - Austin Hallock
• Software Engineer - Mehmet Alkanlar And of course myself, CTO

Allen: What’s your selling pitch for why I should switch my commenting platform to ID?

Jon: We provide a system to help facilitate community and improve interactions among visitors. Many of our users have told us they’ve noticed an increase in both pageviews and the number of comments after installing us. Our enhanced comment system allows the visitors to be more engaged and have a better experience when getting involved in the discussion that the site generates. More and more it’s the comments and discussion around the original content that is becoming important, valuable, and meaningful. We just provide tools to make that experience better for both the publisher and the visitors.

Allen: What’s your take on the SEO issue with regards to using a service like ID?

Jon: This issue is really important to some of our users, and as such it’s an issue we’ll be addressing shortly.

Allen: Why should I trust ID with my data, my users, etc. Can I grab my data anytime I want?

Jon: We get this question a lot, and there’s a couple points to make here. The majority of our users already trust 3rd parties with the data around their blog (posts, users, and even comments). We work very hard to ensure your data is safe. Comments are our life. The truth is we offer more protection than most of our users who store copies of the data themselves.

All that aside, however, we do understand that many users want to have that data in their own hands. As a result, we do offer the ability to export your comments at any time.

Allen: How do you compare ID to other commenting services like those offered by JS-Kit and Disqus?

Jon: There are obviously many similarities. I’m not familiar enough to give a feature by feature comparison, but I know many of our users have told us they like our design/ui and our data migration features more than that of our competitors.

Allen: Can you explain your business model?

Jon: We’re still very young and primarily focused on distribution at the moment. We’re looking into several revenue possibilities including white labeling and opt-in ad revenue shares for the future.

Allen: Do you find that being located outside of the Valley is an advantage, a disadvantage or neither?

Jon: I think at different times it is one or the other. For example, we do find ourselves visiting the Valley to discuss partnerships and other opportunities with other companies in that area. Obviously this would be a lot simpler if we were in the Valley instead. However, the community here in Boulder has been great. People here really want to help each other and it has a very different feel to it than what I’ve experienced in the Valley. In this sense I think it’s been a real advantage for us to be here.

Allen: What’s coming next from Intense Debate?

Jon: We’ve got a lot of exciting stuff coming up in the next month or two. Most of these enhancements will revolve around data migration and getting better integrated into the blogging platforms to make the experience for our publishers as easy and seamless as possible.

Allen: What tips do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs?

Jon: I would say two things. First, find yourself a mentor, or at least a friend in the business that can help to get you hooked in. If you don’t know anybody yet, reach out to a handful. My experience is that these people are generally more than willing to help, and happy to bring someone new into the mix.

Second, don’t be afraid to just dive in. I realize not everyone can do this, but it’s really hard to go half way into the startup lifestyle. Recruiting a team, raising money, building a product, etc all require lots of time and effort and you really can’t do it only on the weekend. It’s a bit scary at first, but once you get in it’s tough to believe you’ve lived any other way.

Partner Links
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NY-based Betaworks launched their Firefly product into public beta today. We initially reviewed Firefly when they presented at the NY Tech Meetup. I’ve embedded the demo video below so you can get familiar with the Firefly service.

Here’s the idea. If you aren’t happy with the commenting service that we offer, or aren’t happy with any of the new crop of comment replacement services, Firefly can slap a layer on top of your page, and allow everyone to chat in real-time using cutsie bubbles without any idea who you are chatting with.

To be effective, everyone who is browsing the page also has to turn on the service. Luckily no plugin is required to use Firefly so they have that going for them. There’s no login or registration required so the messages might start to get a bit "fun". Swearing is allowed by default it seems. Maybe Firefly could be successful if they partner with MySpace or Bebo.

It’s really cute for about 2 minutes on a site that has good traffic. If you load it up and are alone, it’s boring as heck. Either way, once the cutsie factor wears off, it’s lights out. The maximum number of chatters in a Firefly window is 50 at a time. If you are #51, you get a ticket like at the deli counter. When your number is called, you enter the room to pick up your salami and cheese.

Initially SAI’s Peter Kafka called it, "a feature not a service". Today Eric and Dan over at SAI seem to think it’s cooler than Peter did — I’m with Peter on this one. Here’s what Firefly looks like on a site running the service:

Here is one of the quotes we received from the Betaworks team:

"Joshua Auerbach, firefly GM, said, "Firefly’s ‘wow’ feature is the mouse-tracking. Being able to see other visitors’ mouse cursors is just amazing – you have to see it to believe it."

Uhm, when I want to watch people’s mouse cursors, I will do it in CrazyEgg or ClickTale. I can’t tell if messages are logged so an admin can review them later and reply if necessary.

Betaworks has created several very useful products including Summize which was sold to Twitter and most recently Bit.ly which has moved the conversation about URL shorteners forward.

Partner Links
– Free Online Budgeting Software

The world of commenting has seen a number of developments lately, from JS-Kit’s acquisition to socialbrowse’s latest expansion on its own commenting capabilities, all enabling comment creators to have greater control over comments. coComment, a prominent comment-tracking service, is adding a few upgrades to its own site for improved control as well.

Site owners can now automatically delete any unwanted comments based on words or phrases they don’t think are appropriate for their sites. The automation capabilities allow for a more effective management of user-generated site content, as managing comments on your own websites can become quite time consuming depending on volume. Coupling this with coComment’s new option of assigning multiple moderators gives yet another opportunity for the management of site comments to become more streamlined, depending on your needs as the site owner.

Perhaps an even more interesting aspect of coComment’s upgrades is a new Google Desktop widget that displays a user’s last active conversation, which includes a pop-up for comments. This gives users a remote way in which to interact with comments, and makes them a bit more mobile in terms of accessibility across the Web, as that user’s latest activity from any site in which they’ve got a participating comment will display on this widget. As users begin to expect more control and portability for their own data, any expansion on this widget will likely be greatly appreciated, especially as such widgets and remote accessibility could easily tie into the indirect marketing capabilities that we’re seeing within the comment-tracking space.

Combined with the rest of the coComment upgrades, including auto crawl of new posts and comments for Technorati top 100, RSS feeds and email notification of updated conversations, coComment users will be able to better keep track of their own activity as well as the activity of any content that may be of interest to them.

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:coComment Adds Blog Plug-in for PublisherscoComment Yourself on FacebookCoComment Adds CoCoCrawler, YouTube SupportCoComment Officially LaunchesCoComment Gets $1.5 MillioncoComment Version 2.0 with More Social FeaturescoComment Preparing Version 2.0 With More Community