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 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]

[tags]co.mments,coComments,community,tracking,comments[/tags]