ReadWriteWeb

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.

One of the biggest topics in the tech blogosphere at the beginning of this year was 'comment fragmentation.' With services like FriendFeed, SocialMedian, Digg, Reddit, and others often creating unconnected conversations around a single blog post, many bloggers felt that they had lost control of their content and the conversation around it. Artiklz, which launched its private alpha test today, wants to put an end to this discussion. The company aggregates comments from a wide range of external sources, including FriendFeed, Digg, Mixx, Reddit, Yahoo Buzz, and Delicious, with more to follow very soon.

Automattic, the company behind the popular blogging platform Wordpress, has acquired IntenseDebate, a blog commenting plugin that works on almost every blogging platform. The price of the acquisition was not disclosed. This is the third major acquisition for Automattic after buying Gravatar in 2007 and BuddyPress in early 2008. Automattic promises that IntenseDebate will remain platform agnostic, just like Aksimet, Automattic's comment spam blocker.

We've mentioned Disqus here on ReadWriteWeb numerous times. You can even preview Disqus' popular commenting system across numerous personal and major blogs. It's been taking off since it hit the scene with advocates such as Steven Hodson and Louis Gray. Now, they're taking their platform to the next level with a new look and improved integration.

Evite, the social planning service which has been around since 1998, announced a partnership with JS-Kit today. Evite will use JS-Kit's commenting and polling features to allow organizers and guests to communicate with each other. Evite is also expanding the social networking features of its site, including the ability to share photos and stories after the event has taken place.