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When you’re operating a blog you want to make the most of the commenting features. Many years ago when I built some of my first websites, I’d search for solutions which would allow ways for people who visit my pages to interact with me. Back then, one of the best options was to use a program called Matt’s WWWBoard. When I first found this script I felt like I had landed on a goldmine. And as it had turned out, Matt had many other scripts that I started using at the time as well. FormMail, GuestBook and the Free for all Links were some of my favorites. The crazy thing is that many of these scripts is that are still used today!

A lot has changed since then. Today, we have blogs… mainly WordPress. These broadcast and publishing platforms are much more powerful, automatic, and economical compared to the methods of the 90′s (aka. NotePad.exe). Out of the box, WordPress, Blogger, and Tumblr provide a commenting system that offers more ease in interacting with site visitors. But, things have stepped up even higher. Today we have systems that enhance things even further. The question remains, which system is the best for your blog?

Two of the more popular ones that I have tested are called DISQUS and IntenseDebate. Both have the same goals in mind, but both also have their own unique flavors. I’ll point out a few of their features, but in the end, it’s up to you to decide which one is best for your blog. To rest your mind, I’ll tell you up front that I prefer IntenseDebate. The reason why is because in my experience, DISQUS simply didn’t perform well with fighting spam. That might not be the case with your blog, so if you decide you like the features offer by DISQUS better than the ones offered by IntenseDebate, you should give it a shot.

I’ll start by mentioning some of the things I like about DISQUS. For starters, I really enjoy how they split their system into DISQUS Comments and DISQUS Profile. This is clever because not everyone has a blog of their own and yet these people comment on an array of others. The DISQUS Profile system keeps track of comments made on multiple blogs and the discussions within. The DISQUS Comments system is for blog owners. Inside here, you’re able to moderate comments (something I found myself doing a lot), reply directly to comments made on your blog, and a few other tasks. All in all, I am impressed with DISQUS; however, their lack of support with preventing spam caused me to eventually switch to IntenseDebate.

IntenseDebate offers some very promising features unlike DISQUS. For starters, IntenseDebate offers a quick and simple way for readers to subscribe the the RSS feed and comments. Something else worth mentioning is the fact that IntenseDebate is practically native to WordPress. The Automattic team (creators of WordPress) had a hand in developing IntenseDebate. As it turns out, it works very nicely in WordPress. Secondly, it fights spam hard! When I removed DISQUS from my blog, it literally took me hours to review existing comments and remove spam comments.

IntenseDebate, in many ways, might be too strong. Meaning, I spend a little more time approving comments that I would like. But in my opinion, I would rather approve comments rather than remove comments. I feel like once a spam comment is approved, slight damage is done. While it’s obvious that I like IntenseDebate more than DISQUS, don’t let that influence your decision. I recommend that you try both and see which one is best. To level the playing field, IntenseDebate doesn’t offer the Comment / Profile system like DISQUS. Give both a try, and then drop a comment and let everyone know which one you like the best.

The last week in September, I wrote an article expressing some opinions about Google Sidewiki. One of the concerns I had with Google Sidewiki was the fact that users couldn’t claim “indexable ownership” of their content. Instead, content contributed in Google Sidewiki would be left for hackers, and other splog owners to tap into.

Being a blogger myself, at that time, I had no interest in using Google Sidewiki. The reason is simple. If I am going to invest time into contributing my thoughts into words, then I am only going to do that in a way that allows me to maintain control of my content and possibly even make money off it. In other words, instead of investing an hour of time into making a Google Sidewiki comment about another web page, I’d much rather publish the write-up on my blog, add a little SEO flavor to the content, slap some AdSense on the page, and make about $25 / year off my writing.

I am not sure what happened or why, but Google Sidewiki now offers the option to pipe your comments directly into your Blogger.com blog. In my opinion, this corrects everything, and instantly changes my mind about contributing and using Google Sidewiki. This new feature actually excites me simply because I am not able to spin off content on my blog easier than before. New article content can be published on my blog directly from Google Sidewiki. When the comment is published on the blog, a reference to the web page and the Sidewiki page are automatically included in the footnotes of the article.

Another feature I enjoy about Google Sidewiki is the fact that you can leave a welcome comment on pages that you own. The opening comment will remain on the top of the Sidewiki page, and the owner has the option of editing and or deleting the comment if desired. This feature gives site owners, such as bloggers, an excellent opportunity to welcome readers to their site.

The sharing features in Google Sidewiki are very helpful and useful. I’ll admit, when I wrote my first article about Google Sidewiki, I was so bothered by many things that I didn’t have a clear vision on a lot of the good things. The sharing capabilities are great. After publishing a comment, users can share what they wrote on FaceBook, Twitter, and by Email.

I hope to see additional sharing features in the near future; however, I am very pleased with the ones being offered. Frankly, FaceBook and Twitter are my two favorites, plus if I am batching my comments to my Blogger.com blog, I have additional sharing features available there.

That said, I’ll admit, I jumped the gun when I published my last article; however, I do feel my opinions regarding web spam and content theft are valid. Bloggers typically don’t like to contribute content in areas where they lose control of it or the ability to monetize it. With Google making the decision to allow people to pipe their comments directly into their blogs, this makes thing so much more appealing. At least it does for me. And don’t be surprised when you run across a few of my comments in Sidewiki. Also, and don’t be surprised if the post you’re reading on my blog was actually a post written within Sidewiki. And lastly, don’t be surprised if that post was written about you.

Today marks Blogger’s 10th year being online and to commemorate the moment,  birthday presents are being released  as a way to show gratitude to the number of people who have used Blogger. Back when Google acquired Blogger in 2003, the site had around 250,000 visitors per month. Today that number has jumped to over 300 million. You can check Blogger Buzz for the full list of Birthday Presents. I’ll talk more about my favorite Birthday Present below.

Of all birthday presents available, the gift that interests me the most is the new and free Blogger App for the iPhone called BlogPress Lite. The full version of BlogPress has been around for some time, but it isn’t free. Not that I am opposed to spending money on an iPhone App, it’s just nice to see free things for the iPhone. BlogPress Lite was created to celebrate Blogger’s 10th Birthday. (more…)