A new startup called Zemanta launched in alpha mode today. The service integrates with blogging platforms like Wordpress, Blogger, and Typepad to suggest pictures, links, articles, and tags related to your blog postings. Using proprietary natural language processing and semantic algorithms, Zemanta compares the words in a blog post to their pre-indexed database of other content in order to suggest related items which will display next to your blog post.
The articles Zemanta suggests come from 300 or so "top media sources" as well as the other blogs of Zemanta users. The images suggested come from Wikimedia Commons, flickr, and stock photo providers like Shutterstock and Fotolia. Zemanta also pays close attention to copyright, making sure that suggested content is licensed as Creative Commons or approved by stock providers, so you won't get into trouble by using Zemanta's service.
As a blogger, to get your content "Zemified," you'll need to install the Firefox extension, as the only supported browser at this time is Firefox. Once installed, you only need to visit one of the supported blogging platforms and begin to write your post.
While you write, you will notice a new Zemanta sidebar added to your post editing page, which will fill with related content as you type out your entry. The more you write, the better the Zemanta recommendations will be, but each entry should be at least 300 words for Zemanta to work properly. Zemanta is English-only for now, but you may have luck if writing in another language if the content you're writing about involves trademarked items or well-known buzzwords.
To learn more about Zemanta, check it out in action in the following demo:
Zemanta Blogger integration from zemanta on Vimeo.
Although Zemanta is exciting in terms of its semantic algorithm, whether it will really add truly relevant content will need to be seen as bloggers start to use the service. You can see it live on this blog entry, where the blogger used it to provide related links and the image.
Comments
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How detailed is the information that is provided?
This could be an excellent service provided the related information gets more detailed.
Can we read the related stories right in the window or do we need to open a new tab?
This could be a new "Blog writers best friend"
Posted by: deralaand | March 27, 2008 10:38 AMIt's ZemAnta, not ZemEnta.
Posted by: mathjazz | March 27, 2008 11:53 AMI don't know if it's ZemAnta or ZemEnta, The article sounds like a very interesting add-on tool for firefox..
I use both, IE & FF. but when working I pick firefox, So lets see if my PC don't harvest a virus!
Posted by: Straightalk | March 27, 2008 12:43 PM@deralaand: next to each recommendation in interface there is a link to original resource that opens in a new window. Instead of trying to figure out how to display whole remote blog post in already limited space, we opted for more simple design and show you the post in a new window.
Posted by: Jure Cuhalev (Zemanta) | March 27, 2008 3:37 PMHey, thanks for a nice article. As said, we launched early and have some cool new features to roll out soon. We'd love to hear any feedback (positive and negative) on how we can improve.
@deralaand, what exactly do you mean by detailed? You need to open new tabs, since we don't want to interfere with your dashboard to much. Thank you for the compliment. :)
@straightalk, so how's the virus? ;)
Posted by: Boštjan Špetič (zemanta) | March 27, 2008 3:37 PMInteresting idea, although I still like to think that if someone is blogging, it's because they have the content they want to share :) I was eager to give it a try, but it appears I can't... I host my own blog (wordpress-driven), and I use safari.. I'll have to wait and see, I guess!
Posted by: Andrea Hill | March 27, 2008 7:49 PM...and I wrote too soon, evidently it DOES work for wordpress-powered blogs that aren't hosted there. Thanks!
Posted by: Andrea Hill | March 27, 2008 8:10 PMAs usual with web companies, I'm curious to see the business model behind this service.
I created a semantic web application with a similar idea. Not the integration with blogger, but the semantic parsing of a blog entry and finding related top google searches and RSS feeds from around the web.
I'm beginning to see the real beginning of the semantic web. Yay!
My toy semantic web demo:
http://www.josesandoval.com/2008/03/semantic-java-web-application-demo.html
There is one major difference to the zemanta solution (aside from being a company): I'm using freely available web services.
Posted by: Jose Sandoval | March 27, 2008 9:25 PMAfter I had tagged a months worth of old posts with Zemanta, I took a look at my blog to see how they looked.
I was shocked to find out that Zemanta had added a neon orange button to the bottom of every posts that I had even opened since I installed the Zemanta add-on.
There was never any mention of this on the website or in the extension. Completely behind my back.
I wouldn't have even minded so much if it had just told me that it was going to add a neon orange button to each of my posts, but doing so behind my back was a complete betrayal of my trust.
I would feel much better about the situation if I had an option to customize the Zemanta button on all of my posts (they are my posts, after all). Give me some different sizes and colors to chose from. Heck, if you really want to trust me, let me turn it off completely and maybe I'd add my own link to Zemanta.
As it stands, I feel like I trusted Zemanta enough to install their widget and let it do some things with my blog posts, and it betrayed that trust by doing some things without asking permission first.
Good idea. Bad implementation.
Posted by: Pat Hawks | March 27, 2008 9:26 PMHy from Zemanta,
I’d like to write about the autogenerated icon we put into blogs.
First we’d like to assure you (and everybody - we've just put this into the FAQ) that it is perfectly alright to remove the image whenever you want.
We need some publicity (a struggling startup as we are) so we decided to
put the image in every time when a blogger uses our tool. Image is not enforced in any way, it is in the editor area so you can edit it. The blogger is allowed and enabled to remove that image.
We thought that if you look at your post it is obvious the image is inserted and that you can remove it. I am sorry that you missed it, and this is now in FAQ.
Sorry for the unpleasant experience and please don't give up on us! We are trying hard.
We are going to seriously think about how to strike a good balance, maybe adding an option to control it. Expect something on that topic one or two iterations further.
Posted by: andraz | March 28, 2008 5:18 AM"Betrayed?!" "Behind your back?!" Well, I thought it was peculiar that the icon appeared, but I certainly didn't feel "betrayed" by Zemanta. It seemed quite obvious to me to just click the icon and hit delete -- but then again, I liked the icon and kept it.
I used the service twice today and had positive experiences both times, icon or no icon.
Posted by: KNS | March 28, 2008 2:45 PMI'm pretty jazzed about Zemanta! I Zemantified a new blog this evening and update my last 20 blogs. Here's what I found:
1. It was quick to bring relevant images to my attention. However, I was only able to add a single image and Zemanta dictated its position on my blog. I am using Typepad.
2. It quickly identified several keywords in my writing that might be worthy of links. Many of the link suggestions appeared to be of common words like "cookie". When I examined it further, it understood that my reference was to HTTP cookies vs the kind you eat. That was cool! It will get your meaning from the context of your post. After Zemantifying 21 posts, all Link References were to Wikipedia entries. So, I didn't see the diversity of link sources I thought would be available.
3. It quickly finds other relevant posts to be referenced from your post. This was pretty awesome! Each of my posts had 7 or 8 relevant posts that I could (easily - just click and it is added) add to mine.
4. The integration with Typepad was seemless - nice job Zemanta!
OK - that's my first impression! Here's my blog if you want to see how it looks in practice: http://thoughtlava.typepad.com/mindflow
Posted by: John-Scott Dixon | March 28, 2008 11:38 PMIT'S GREAT IDEA REALLY I LOVE IT SOO MUCH
but it support English language only :s
i'll use it more if it support Arabic language i hope so
Thanx alot
Posted by: HoNdA | March 30, 2008 12:59 AMthere seems to be some problem in the addon
firstly the addon is not installing....
then it sometimes shows articles and gallery on right and sometimes not.Even it has reduces the speed also..
Posted by: shitu | April 1, 2008 3:38 AM