Co.mments Bites the Dust
Conversation tracking service Co.mments has announced this morning that it will cease operations at the end of the week, one month before its 3rd anniversary online. The service was at one time reviewed favorably compared to similar services that have gone on to be acquired or funded by investors. A respectable number of users quickly bemoaned the decision in comments on the company blog.
Thousands of services are launched online every year and only a small number of those prove to have as much longevity. Today's new paradigm trailblazer will often be tomorrow's dead-end hassle for its developer. Such is the nature of a rapidly iterating web and such is the fate of Co.mments.
Co.mments had some trouble differentiating itself from competitors, but with the acquisition of IntenseDebate by WordPress parent company Automattic, the widespread popularity of Disqus, the innovation and war chest of JS-Kit and the hip new entrant Backtype, this market is as crowded as ever. Co.mments was compared most to CoComment when it launched; that company recently announced a partnership with JS-Kit.
There's a reason why so many people start comment tracking companies - online comments are filled with valuable user data and there's a compelling human element to keeping track of responses to what you've said on blogs. It's not hard to imagine Facebook Connect owning this space within a year, though. We're cheering, none the less, for open standards in the portable identity, data and contacts sphere.
Co.mments hasn't announced any plan for users to export their data. Update: The company just posted instructions on how to export your tracking data.
Project founder Assaf Arkin has a day job as the CTO of open source business process management company Intalio. You can track his other development work at GitHub.
Comments
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Really a pity ... it was a great service ...
Posted by: hombrelobo | January 6, 2009 10:46 AM
I use Google Friend Connect and Disqus.
Posted by: Web20Critic
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January 6, 2009 11:15 AM
Bummer, they were the pioneer in this area but I always felt the functionality wasn't quite there.
Posted by: Mark Krynsky
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January 6, 2009 11:26 AM
Let's spare everyone the fluff commenter #1, it's obviously not too great of a service if they don't give their loyal users a way to export all the data they have accrued. Perhaps you *thought* they were a great service... but they have now proved you incorrect, unfortunately. Saying things like "...have turned it into a chore..." testify to the backers not having their heart in this thing. In this industry any service without heart behind it is dead at the starting line.
Posted by: Matt | January 6, 2009 11:34 AM
BackType is indeed hip as hell. Saved me from having to "Cc. this comment to FriendFeed" which insists on forgetting my remote key.
Posted by: Q dub | January 6, 2009 11:57 AM
Q dub - isn't it kinda crazy that's the world we live in now? Feels really different from how all this felt 3 years ago when some of these services first started.
To put it simple, for me co.mments.com's end is a tragedy.
I comment usually to domestic Hungarian blogs that have their own blog engines, practically compatible with nothing, and co.mments was the only site that was able to track comments there. The decease of co.mments leaves a real vacuum. I'm afraid I'be left without the ability to track my converations in RSS.
Posted by: kgyst.myopenid.com
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January 6, 2009 12:41 PM
speaking of Facebook Connect, when are you guys going to implement it?
Posted by: Mark | January 6, 2009 1:29 PM
I was wondering about this the last week. Miss it already. I'm trying co.comments and commentful since I realized something was up but not having as much success yet:( Backtype, I have to explore this mnore.
Posted by: Nicholas Quixote | January 6, 2009 4:19 PM
I use Backtype to track my comments ,co.mments should gave their users the option to export their data if they not going to provide service at all.
Posted by: venkat | January 6, 2009 8:27 PM
Never heard of them but its a shame that they are gone if they were the pioneer on this type of service.
Posted by: Diamonds | January 7, 2009 9:31 AM
I never really got into it. I think it was a total mess. Not a big loss IMHO...
Posted by: Paolo | January 7, 2009 9:34 AM
Bummer. This was a great service. It came way before this new wave (disqus, etc) and it was all encompassing.
Right now we're going to see the services fight it out, and it was nice to have one place where you could track all of your comments, rather than signing in to a different service for every blog you use.
Posted by: evbart | January 7, 2009 1:20 PM
Is this a viable alternative?
http://commentful.blogflux.com/
When I first decided to use co.mments, i compared it head to head with commentful (and co.mments won), but now that its dead, I may go back to commentful?
Posted by: evbart | January 7, 2009 4:30 PM
Is this a viable alternative?
http://commentful.blogflux.com/
When I first decided to use co.mments, i compared it head to head with commentful (and co.mments won), but now that its dead, I may go back to commentful?
Posted by: evbart | January 7, 2009 4:30 PM
great service
Posted by: Cipek | February 1, 2009 2:13 PM