BackType.com - A Search Engine for Comment(er)s
BackType is a site that allows you to search for comments made by different people on blogs across the net.
This is a rather interesting search engine and one that can come in useful for discovering new web sites and blogs by following someone who has similar interests as you.
In addition to following people, BackType also provides a search capability for finding information within comments themselves. This is just as powerful (though not as interesting) as the people search capability, as many search engines do not index comments.
The Search Results
Now, the main challenge of creating this site and search work would have to be the ability to link comments together by person. The way they handle this is actually very simple, but rather ingenious at the same time… Match the name of the commenter with the URL they enter in the comments field.
On the other side of the coin is the comment search capability.
Since many search engines will not index comments (because of spam and other problems), BackType fills this void by providing you with a way to search through comments by keyword.
There’s nothing spectacular about this search, but it’s just a good - yet basic - keyword search.
No URL? No Problem
Obviously, the one key feature to this is the URL. So, what do you do if you don’t have a URL? Easy… BackType can provide one for you. All you have to do is sign up for an account, claim your current comments, and they’ll provide you with your own URL to use in the future.
This won’t help you with comments that are in the past, but you can at least begin to record your comments moving forward.
Claim Your Comments
Another feature of BackType is the ability to create a profile and claim your comments. This is a good way to not only provide people with a way to learn more about you, but also a good way to help prevent anyone from masquerading as you.
However, I did have a few issues with the signup process and understanding a few things on the back end. For starters, the Clickpass and OpenID signup didn’t seem to work when trying to connect it to my Google account. Secondly, I didn’t quite understand what the “importing comments” feature was… is it supposed to be sites I own, or sites I comment on?
But, these are minor problems that can be fixed quickly, so they’re no big deal.
Conclusion
BackType is a very interesting and creative solution to a problem and is actually creating a market in itself. If you’re blogger or just an active commenter in the blog community, I strongly recommend this site.
Via: Altsearchengines.com
September 11th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Hey, thanks for the great write up. By the way we do have some more advanced search features if you want to check out http://www.backtype.com/search — there is still lots to do to make it better.
We’re aware of the openid issues and should have them fixed soon.
Importing comments is looking for you to enter the sites you own. For example, because I entered http://www.backtype.com/mm into my sites, this comment will show up on my profile. We’re still going to try make that process clearer.
Thanks again,
Mike