Comments on: Canadian Duo Unveils Comment Tool

By: Idea for New Interactive Commenting Tool « Local Search | Jennifer Lind

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 19:44:22 +0000

[...] if there were currently any interesting commenting tools out there,and I came up with one called BackType. For example, you can put together a list of the people whose comments you want to see, and then [...]

By: BackType Plugs A Hole In Online Monitoring Systems | davefleet.com

BackType Plugs A Hole In Online Monitoring Systems | davefleet.com — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 23:51:28 +0000

[...] Louis Gray says, "I think BackType has the potential to be as relevant as Technorati (in a good way), Google [...]

By: Mark Evans

Mark Evans — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:18:50 +0000

Mike,

My sense is comment search is going to be your “killer app”, while the “follow” feature will an interesting but secondary feature. Of course, I could be dead wrong. In any event, I think you’ve got something with interesting potential.

Mark

By: Mike Montano

Mike Montano — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:26:42 +0000

Hi Chris,

Please feel free to shoot me an email mm [at] backtype [dot] com — so we can figure out what is confusing about the setup and FAQ.

Mark, thanks again for writing about us. We’ve seen interest in doing both — and we’re trying to figure out now what people care about most. One simple reason to follow someone’s comments, IMO, is if you like what they write in blogs and want to see what they are saying elsewhere, this is how. And I know from doing this I’ve been able to discover some awesome posts and discussions that I missed in my feed reader. I’m eager to see if other people are finding that following comment authors is useful for this reason.

By: Mark Evans

Mark Evans — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:54:07 +0000

The configuration parts of BackType are far from intuitive. I’m not sure for example why I would want to follow someone’s comments. There’s more value in searching keywords, people, companies, etc. IMHO.

Mark

By: Chris Schmitt

Chris Schmitt — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:46:53 +0000

BackType is a really interesting service and has a lot of potential. For example, tracking your comments on BackType led me you a really interesting post on FreshBooks that I may not have seen otherwise. I find the setup and FAQs a little confusing though - but then they’ve just started. Also, the site’s getting really slow - must be garnering a lot of interest.

By: Mark Evans

Mark Evans — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 15:14:52 +0000

Louis,

Before you know it, you could see the Social Media Gray Scale where new services were rated based on an algorithm based on a keyword analysis of your reviews.

I think BackType could be intriguing. I’m not quite sure about the “follow” aspect yet but I can definitely see its potential as a search tool.

Mark

By: Louis Gray

Louis Gray — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 15:07:16 +0000

Mark, I’m smiling over here. I like how my enthusiasm is now being rated on a scale.

Would you prefer I give numerical ratings to services for comparison purposes? I think BackType is pretty cool. If I’ve been overweighted to date with FriendFeed/Strands/SocialMedian, that’s because I like that type of service, and get it.

But I think BackType has the potential to be as relevant as Technorati (in a good way), Google Blog Search or Summize. It’s one to watch for sure.

By: Mark Evans

Mark Evans — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:14:29 +0000

Svetlana,

If possible, I try to add a different perspective on the news, especially news that attracts a lot of attention given much of the coverage tends to be alone the same lines.

It will be interesting to see how BackType makes money. I would not be surprised if it and Disqus do something together given they have complementary businesses.

By: Svetlana Gladkova

Svetlana Gladkova — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:00:13 +0000

Very reasonable review, I really dislike how the tech blogosphere tends to follow the 1st blog post on this or that startup and everyone is either excited and enthusiastic if the 1st blogger is or entirely negative otherwise. Good to see you mentioning both positive and negative things about it.

And I can also support you 100% that monetization will be very interesting here. I am sure that if they attempt to support the site with ads, they will get tons of complains from comment owners (and blog owners as well) so they’ll need to come up with something very different like brand tracking for marketers for a fee or something.