But what if that comment is posted to FriendFeed or Digg? Now who owns it? Clearly, we have a lot less control over comments off of our web site, but should we be granted any rights to those comments at all? If the same comment had been made on the blog itself, we'd have probably looked at it as something we had full publishing rights to. Now that the comment is elsewhere, that's less clear.

Wiliams also points out that hosted comment services, such as Disqus, muddy the issue further. Blogs using that type of system are only really republishing comments made to specialized comment aggregation pages on a third party service. It's almost like publishing a feed of comments from Digg or FriendFeed. Commenters are generally given far more control over their comment when using Disqus than when using a built-in blog comment system. Systems like CoComment and Commentful that pull your comment stream into a single database similarly make things more complicated. Clearly, the idea there is that the commenter should be in full control of his or her comments.

"Since no blog platforms that I am aware of provide a mechanism for clarifying comment ownership rights, it seems to me that at best this issue is legally unclear, and at worst the site owner might only have the right to use and display the content in the very specific context in which the user placed the comment," writes Williams. "So if, for example the blog owner wanted to use the comment on another site, or to reconfigure his blog in some substantial way, that might, theoretically require the permission of the commenter."

This is an important issue, and as a commenter on Williams' blog notes, it has implications about liability as well. If I slander someone on your blog, and you're claiming ownership of my comment, where does the liability lie? What do you think? Who owns your comments? Does it matter where you leave them? We plan to sell the best comments on eBay and pocket all the profits (kidding!).

In addition to the service itself provided by the web site, YackTrack's creator, Rob Diana of Regular Geek quickly responded to user feedback and added a YackTrack bookmarklet, a suggestion that our very own Marshall Kirkpatrick proposed in the comments of the post.

Another feature that was quickly added was a YackTrack link that bloggers could include on each of their blog posts. This idea came from Colin Walker.

What's New

YackTrack has now received another update. Besides scouring the web for comments on service like Digg, Disqus, FriendFeed, Mixx, StumbleUpon, Technorati, and WordPress, YackTrack's URL search now includes Blogger/Blogspot searches as well as Google Blog Search. Also, FriendFeed search results now include what service generated the result.

However, the big news in this update is yhe new feature on YackTrack called "Chatter," which now has its own tab on the site. This feature is a bit different than the standard YackTrack URL search. Instead, Chatter allows you to perform keyword searches on the social web. On Chatter, you can search Mixx, Technorati, Google Blog Search, FriendFeed, and Twitter (currently powered by Summize, but that will change in the future).

YackTrack Chatter

Finally, the YackTrack UI got a little refresh too, giving the site a cleaner, more professional look and feel.

YackTrack is a conversation tracker, automating the search for the comments that many content producers currently have to seek out on their own. After searching for a similar service that does this and not finding one, Rob decided to build his own.

Using YackTrack is simple - just enter in the URL whose comments you want to see and and click "Search for URL." YackTrack scours the net to find comments from services like Digg, Disqus, FriendFeed, Mixx, StumbleUpon, Technorati, and WordPress. Each supported service has its own separate section so you can follow the conversation that takes place on that site.

YackTrack's Web Site

There are still many things people wish that YackTrack could do, but Rob says those are coming. Specifically, his future plans include registration and saving URLs to track, RSS and email notifications, more supported services, and, based on initial user feedback, maybe a WordPress plugin as well. He also hints at something even bigger, saying "My future plans are fairly straightforward, except for one part that I would prefer not to talk about yet."

Despite these big plans, Rob seems humbled and surprised by the attention the service is receiving, especially considering the service only launched yesterday. He's worried that his server, never tested to withstand a huge traffic influx, won't be able to handle the load we send. (RWW has been known to crash startups' servers before). "This is not a large beast like FriendFeed or Twitter," he says. Maybe not yet, Rob, but I'd buy some extra servers and bandwidth just in case.

In Paul's post, he notes that "Agreeing tends to motivate people less than disagreeing. And when you agree there's less to say. You could expand on something the author said, but he has probably already explored the most interesting implications."

It's true. When you're agreeing with an author of a blog post, it just seems kind of silly to take the time to write out a comment that simply states: "I agree." So instead, the agreement or the liking of the post stays off-record. This means that even on a more universally well thought of post, the comments will often be the domain of the discordant few. This doesn't give a fair representation of the thoughts and reactions of the readers and, therefore, doesn't provide any true insight into the way the issue is perceived. It could be that 90% of the readers think the author is correct in their opinion, but only the 10%  who feel differently have made their voices heard.

Additionally, as those of you who are also bloggers know, it can be disheartening for authors to read through blog comments to only find comments consisting of "well, actually...," "this is old news," and the equivalent of "that's so lame!" filling up the commentary section. Perhaps the post was lame, but then again, it could be that those who enjoyed it haven't taken time to respond.

Commentary and opinions don't have to be pigeon-holed as being in agreement or disagreement, though. Yes, some opinions could be in favor of or against the post, but others could be undecided, confused, or neutral. Unfortunately, it seems that readers with those sorts opinions just move on, not bothering to post anything anywhere until they happen across a blog that sufficiently riles them up over an issue.

Where the Positive Reactions Are

Maybe it's just human nature to only be inspired to opine when you're vehemently against something.

So for generating positive reactions, a service like FriendFeed (sorry in advance to those of you who are sick of the hype) fills a void. In FriendFeed, a simple click allows you to "like" a blog post. You don't have to comment. You aren't whisked away off-site like you are when clicking a Digg button. It's just one click in your stream of content. You see a smiley face. The blog author sees a smiley face. It's nice.

In fact, in this respect, FriendFeed is the new Digg. Yes, I said it.

Whereas at one time, digging a post meant "this is interesting, I enjoyed it," these days, digging is a serious business. Writing for Digg, the logistics of getting to the front page, befriending the elite diggers, the potential for buries...it has all made Digg an interesting and important ecosystem to generate traffic and interest for a web site, but soon, it will no longer the best way to see the true popularity of post. Instead, highly dugg stories are more like a combination of various forces, metrics, timing, and luck. 

Instead, it's the smiley faces of FriendFeed that will be the metric of the future for judging popularity of a blog post. Especially since the FriendFeed API has introduced a way for a Wordpress/FriendFeed plugin to exist. All we need now is a universal plugin that's tweaked so as to let you "like" the post on FriendFeed while still on the blog's web site itself. Then we'll really be in business.

Example of the FriendFeed plugin in action

For what it's worth, the plugin also addresses earlier concerns that the conversation has left the blogosphere. And with blog commenting system, Disqus, being able to integrate back into FriendFeed, it all comes full circle. But that's another post.

More Difficult - Continuing the Conversation via Blog Comments

While FriendFeed makes it easy for people to mark their enjoyment of a blog post, having people comment on the blog with something useful, constructive, or positive is far more difficult.

Referring back the Geek News post, the author writes, "There are loosely 3 groups in increasing order of prevalence: those that want to add something to the conversation (constructors), those that have a strong contrary opinion (objectors) and those that just want attention (detractors)."

It's easy to get detractors. Just throw up an inflammatory post, make some wild claim, or post something that's knowingly inaccurate. Comments ensue.

Objectors aren't so bad, either. They sit on the other side of the fence and offer a differing viewpoint. Sometimes, an objector can also be a constructor and add to the post. I think of this example, where our "Comment of the Day" winner, Jerome, was so convinced about Google Docs' brilliance that he took the time to give numerous examples of what the service can do, which led to a discovery of a feature that many of us were unaware of: GoogleLookUp. So objectors can definitely add to the blog.

Other times, the objectors fall somewhere else on the "Paul Graham Scale of Disagreement," desperate to share their opinion, but going about it in a less convincing way (see DH3 and below). While sometimes the name-calling (DH0) can be humorous (yes, I'm guilty of have voted up the occasional hilarious Digg comment), more often than not it's a detractor to the conversation.

So how can you entice the elusive constructor to add their thoughts to a blog post? To get this sort of blog commenter, you have to first attract a quality readership to your site. This is more difficult. Articles have to well-researched, well-written, intelligent, and insightful. For a blog to provide regular posts of high quality is difficult, but it can be done. And once you have quality readers - those who thoughtfully read the article, think about what they want to say, and then compose their thoughts in a way that creates a valuable addition to the original post - you have a conversation of merit and something worth reading.

And shouldn't that be the true goal of blogging? Intelligent conversation? As a blogger, the focus should be on starting that conversation; for readers, it should be adding to it. Blogger and reader don't always have to agree with each other, but being able to at least constructively debate the issue brings something to the table that straightforward reporting does not.

In this age of information overload, constructive conversations will win out in the long run. You'll find the best conversations through your network of friends - shared in Google Reader, posted on FriendFeed, or maybe even the old-fashioned way (email!). As you narrow your focus to this unique and personal slice of the web, you'll remember why you love blog reading in the first place - not to get Google Reader to stop saying "1000+" - but to join a conversation, add value to a discussion, find like-minded people, debate an issue, learn something new, and maybe even better understand yourself and the world. 

Congratulations Nick and Charlie, you've each won a $30 Amazon voucher - courtesy of our competition sponsors AdaptiveBlue and their Netflix Queue Widget.

Nick's comment:

"As soon as the FriendFeed API hits the streets, someone is going to make a widget that pulls FriendFeed comments either to simply be displayed on the post, or to be submitted into the blog's actual comment system, a "FriendFeed Comment to Wordpress Comment Plug-in," for example."

Charlie's comment:

"Hi Sarah and thanks for the links!. Some cool stuff here. Lifestreaming is relatively new and no doubt will see some growth then consolidation. I honestly see it as a way to create MORE readers (Am I the only one that clicks??). Right now, there's a lot of truth to what you're saying. I probably waste a half hour a day on this stuff BUT others are leveraging the various services to promote and obtain viewers. I for one have discovered more great sites in the past few months (particularly through Twitter and Friendfeed) than being 'stuck' in the same reading cycle... and occasionally re-write my blogroll accordingly. We should be keeping an eye on Google Reader. What Google does there next will probably change this landscape."