Smackdown: co.mments vs. coComment
August 14, 2007
Hi. My name’s Mark and I’m a Blog Schmoozer. (”Hi Mark.”) To be a blog schmoozer, one must leave comments on blogs and forums for the sheer joy of socializing, learning, sharing, whatever.
I confess, while it does have its perks, it’s not always easy. There are times when it can be challenging keeping up with all the places I leave my schmooze. That’s why someone invented two tools designed specifically for keeping track of it all. I’d like to compare these two tools that can bring out the inner schmoozer in you. Walk this way, won’t you?
coComment
I really want to love this tool — I really do. But gosh darnit if it doesn’t make me just a wee bit irritable. It’s integration is clever and automatic, but it’s also slooooow. So slow, in fact, that it sometimes keeps you from leaving comments all together.
The way it works is it adds a little tool bar beneath comment boxes on blogs you visit (and even some sites and forums). You can choose to track a comment or not. When you do, the blog you’re on is documented in your account where you can return to see how the conversation has developed.
Trouble is (at least the trouble I’ve been having), when you choose to track a comment it just takes forever to connect, if at all, to the coComment server. I’ve even tried unchecking the option to track the comment, still to no avail. The only solution I’ve found is to just disable the thing. 
However, as you can see in the image above, it does offer a nifty sidebar in your browser allowing you to click on blogs you’ve visited and view the conversations in the right side of the window.
It also offers a widget to display on your blog to show your readers what you’re commenting on. Personally, I don’t care much for this aspect of it. It sounds cool, but if you have time to live vicariously by watching someone comment elsewhere, then methinks you have too much time on your hands. 
Overall, when you visit your account, you get the feeling of “co.mments meets MyBlogLog”. Why? Because it’s a community where you can track your friend’s comments, and start or join groups. Nothing wrong with that.
If it weren’t for the disappointing “get-in-the-way” behavior it gives me, I’d give it a 5-star rating. Alas, I can only muster a 3-star.
[rating:3/5]
co.mments
Not as sexy, but at least more reliable than coComments is this little ditty: co.mments. It records the conversations you want by using its bookmarklet. Clicking it will provide you with a brief confirmation in the form of small window that will quickly fade away.
Not feeling sociable? That’s all right. Just click the bookmarklet anyway and go into lurking mode.
What I like about this tool is it doesn’t get in my way. And as can be seen above, the interface used to view the comments I track is very clean. I’ve configured it also to email me when a new comment has been made. It’s rival doesn’t do that at this time, but they’re working on it.
If you’re looking for an easy way to keep track of all the places you leave comments or just want to monitor other people’s conversations, then I recommend using co.mments. But if you’re more into tracking your comments, joining groups, adding friends, and what not, then perhaps the coComments service is more to your liking.
[rating:4/5]
Comments
41 Responses to “Smackdown: co.mments vs. coComment”
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If you want to do that right, you have to remember all the places you left your comments. To help you with this, there are neat tools designed specifically for keeping track of it all. My friend Mark of MeAndMyDrum wrote a good comparison between co.mments and coComment (I hope Mark will forgive me that I ’stole’ his screenshot, and I hope Brown Baron is still enjoying himself hitting the disco). Mark’s conclusion is: “If you’re looking for an easy way to keep track of all the places
onthouden waar zich een interessante discussie afspeelt, of waar je zelf een reactie hebt achtergelaten. Om je daarbij te helpen zijn er aardige en handige tools, speciaal ontwikkeld om het allemaal bij te kunnen houden. Mark van MeAndMyDrum schreef een goede vergelijking
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[…] Smackdown: co.mments vs. coComment Hi. My name’s Mark and I’m a Blog Schmoozer. (”Hi Mark.”) To be a blog schmoozer, one must leave comments on blogs and forums for the sheer joy of socializing, learning, sharing, whatever.I confess, while it does have its perks, it’s not always easy. There are times when it can be challenging keeping up with […] Read the full post […]
I’m a Co.mments user too..
I never tried the other one and from the sounds of it I should be thankful! 
I’m putting together a list of helpful posts to bloggers, which I want to have in my sidebar, it’ll just be links to posts which are useful. Would you maybe like to pick your top 5 and shoot me an email with links and the text you want? If you’re ok with me linking to them?
Snoskred
http://www.snoskred.org/
Thanks, Mark. I will try co.mments, sounds like a good thing. Jos:)
About the other one: I’ve heard other users complain about the same thing, although I can’t say if it’s as frequent as my experience, but at least it’s not just me.
Sure, thanks for asking! I’ll gather up some and send your way. For the text, are you referring to the link text as opposed to the description?
Happy to help!
For the text, yeah basically what you want the link to say, you may choose to use the headline or you might have specific words you want it to say..
If I’m grabbing them from sites I usually use the headline..
Cheers, I shall look forward to it!
Snoskred
http://www.snoskred.org/
I’ll have to give co.mments a try. I finally had to give up coComments. You’re right, it definitely makes you irritable :/
I was just complaining to my wife about how coComment sucked. This other one seems to be what I’m looking for yay! Thanks buddy.
By the way, that last screenshot is beautiful!
Wow, co.mments got a higher rating? I will probably have to check it out now.
I’ve only used CoComments, and found that I didn’t check it often enough to hassle with it. If your testing was just done recently, it could be because they just upgraded to the second phase of their website and may be encountering some issues. Hopefully they will get it fixed as many people seem to prefer their service if the speed was better.
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co.mments is devilishly simple.
That’s what I like about it.
Snoskred
http://www.snoskred.org/
I used to use coComment but I disabled it for the same reasons as you mentioned. Not sure if I want to give it a try with the other one
[…] has posted a well thought out comparison of Co.mments vs. CoComment. Â I’m not a big tracker of my comments, but I have used CoComment before and enjoyed it. Â […]
Well, I just heard from someone that works at coComments and he said they’ve made some improvements. So maybe it’s worth checking out one more time. But if you’re looking for something that just tracks comments, I think you’ll be pleased with co.mments.
Hehe…you have a way with words. And so true, too.
Yeah, coComments contacted me earlier today explaining that they were aware of the speed issue and that things have gotten better. I think I’ll check it out another time to see how it differs. If their speed has improved, then the only thing I think that would keep me from using it more would be that they don’t have email updates. That’s what I like most about co.mments. And the message includes links making it easy to respond or remove.
LOL You’re welcome.
Screenshot? That old thing? I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
Wow, coming from the man who introduced me to it, that’s saying something. But as I mentioned earlier, and to be fair, word has it that they’ve improved, so maybe it’s worth another shot. But if not, I know I can rely on co.mments.
Haha…well I never actually had trouble with the speed of the thing like you mentioned. My problem was that quite often comments weren’t showing up on the blogs. They’d show up on the coComments page but never make it to the blog. Not only that it didn’t work for me on some blogs. Like yours for example..lol. It doesn’t seem to get along with the threaded comments plugin.
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[…] Smackdown: co.mments vs. coComment msierra - member blog: MeAndMyDrum created 8 hours, 44 minutes ago tags: blogging co.mments cocomments comments community reviews tracking [edit] Comments: BZ: add comment ↓dump […]
“Hi, Mark!”
I have been using co.mments for a couple of days now, and I think it is exactly what I needed (eventhough it seems to lack some of its’ functionality when used in IE). It is splendid in its simplicity of use. I will do a little post on it on ‘NoDirectOn (not: NoDirection)’. With a link to your schmooze, of course
(btw: I keep being kicked out by your commenting system, error message: website too busy)
I’ve posted this after Uninstalled the FF extension
I started out using cocomment, but I agree that it’s slow to use. I do use co.comment at times, but I always forget to click the bookmarklet in the toolbar…it’s just a habit I’ll have to build for myself
Sephyroth
http://www.sephyroth.net
Hi Mark! In case you don’t get the pingback: here’s the link to my post (including the screenshot, so now my audience nows more about Brown, too
Hi,
This is a good post. It gives me the information I was in search of.
Thanks.
Hey there Jos. That’s good to hear that you’re finding co.mments useful.
I appreciate the link back!
Hmm, don’t know what’s going on with my host. I, too, have trouble accessing my blogs from time to time. Thinking about making a move in the near future.
Yeah, it’s definitely something you have to get into the habit for. I’ve got so many bookmarks in my toolbar that I’m surprised that I actually remember it.
Hehe…thanks for that Jos!
Hi oleg, hmmm, seems like maybe they still have a few kinks two work out.
Thanks for stopping by.
Hi Tom, glad to be of help!
Good to see you here.
[…] Smackdown: Comments vs Cocomment by Mark- Mark writes a fantastic post about these two head to head, and I’m glad he did so because despite what cocomment SHOULD do, I’ve been under impressed with its actual performance which is really too bad since for a blogger, it should be a killer go to tool. […]
Hi Mark!
I got an e-mail or two after publishing my posts, from cocomment. Explaining about the update, etc. You had that too, right? I thought that was very admirable from a pr point of view. So to be nice, I tried cocomments today. It may be easier if you’re on FF i.s.o. on IE like I am, but trying to manually integrate it with my blogger blogs and my typepad blog, and all the synchronizing via technorati etc. took me 2-3 hours before I gave up, I got lost in all possible ways. That’s not for me.. I know now that I am a Dummy.
I got co.mments running in 15 secs. Only thing I noticed is that it didn’t report comments that are - I don’t know how to say in English exactly - embedded (?) in other comments, like you have here. It seems it only reports the linear comment thread. Am I right?
-Jos:)
I don’t recall getting their emails, but I did have two of their employees comment on my post at BAYB both saying they upgraded so all should be well.
But you bring up something I hadn’t noticed. I’ll have to check out the issue you reference about threaded comments. I don’t recall too many places I’ve tracked comments on that had threaded comments, but now I’ll know what to look out for. Thanks for the heads-up!
[…] of the Day (Friday, 17 August 2007): blogs Smackdown: co.mments vs. coComment Hi. My name’s Mark and I’m a Blog Schmoozer. (”Hi Mark.”) To be a blog […]
[…] blog’s success. We all want feedback; and the more discussion you encourage, the better. But the tools for tracking comments leave something to be desired. There’s no shortage of comment-related functionality you can […]
Greetings Gentleman, V2 has been released officially. Let’s have a look if the problem fixed in it
@Oleg: thanks for the update!