Many rich and compelling online conversations happen via comments to weblogs or articles (on sites that allow direct comments, such as Poynter Online). However, conversations carried on via such comments often are notoriously difficult to track and follow -- especially since comments often don't get indexed reliably by search engines or feed aggregation services.

In a previous Tidbits posting, Fons Tuinstra recommended comment-tracking service called CoComment. Created by a Swiss company, CoComment has been around for a few months but is finally adding compatibility and functionality that, in my opinion, can offer considerable appeal and benefits to typical (nongeeky) Web users. Look for their user base to boom, if they keep moving in this direction.

When CoComment first launched, the service only worked in conjunction with blogs based on a few popular platforms, such as Typepad. For me, that was a major drawback since I often comment on blogs such as, well, this one. (Poynter Online is supported by a custom content management system.) It used to be that I couldn't use CoComment to track comments I left on non-compatible sites. Now, CoComment offers a way for site/blog owners to integrate CoComment compatibility into unsupported blogs. (Yes, those instructions are geeky and confusing, but CoComment developer Chris Zumbrunn assures me they'll be giving that page a solid edit soon.)

If your site or blog allows comments, it might be a good idea to make it CoComment-compatible (if it isn't already). As the CoComment user base expands this could offer appreciable long-term benefits for audience engagement and site traffic. CoComment does have competitors, but so far they have the best approach I've seen to comment tracking -- as well as a first-mover advantage.

And if you leave comments scattered on various sites around the Web, you might want to register for a CoComment account and give it a try. It really helps you view sites and blogs as conversational media -- which I believe is a key part of the perception shift Vin Crosbie recently advocated for news organization survival.

CoComment definitely has room for improvement, but I think it's off to a good start. This is one for media pros to watch.