How to Track Comments in Google Reader

By
Lynda Giddens
– Mon August 9, 2010Posted in: Blogging

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Commenting on a lot of blogs daily presents a major problem: How do I keep track of all these blog posts? Or is it even worth it?

I really don’t like leaving a piece of myself behind and forgetting about it. Truly – I’ve held onto everything I’ve ever written which was mine to keep. I have my first grade diaries, my middle school short stories, my high school angsty love-sick notes and even a novel I started in the 9th grade! (The Locket’s Echo – about a girl who loses her one true love or some such crap; I haven’t read it since I wrote it. I actually have a copy of it on my web server!) But, -ahem-, I’ve wandered off a bit…

After viewing a BlogFrog post, Keeping Track of the Comments You Make, it became clear to me I was not alone in having a hard time returning to sites where I left a comment. In the discussion, I suggested using Google Reader to keep track of comments. I’d done it before, but it was not something I used on a regular basis.

There are a couple of other methods suggested in that post too:


Comment Subscription

Sometimes I subscribe to replies, but there are a few reasons why I won’t do this:

  1. It’s not available through all blogging platforms (or if it is available, the author hasn’t set it up.)
  2. Unless the topic of the post and all the discussion from it really interests me, it usually just pisses me off to get an email every time someone responds on the post.
  3. I’ve learned some systems have a double-opt in emailing me a link to click and confirm my subscription (ex: WordPress.com and Intense Debate). I understand this when subscribing to site updates, but I don’t have enough time to wait for an email and activate a subscription to comment replies. Yes folks, these 10 seconds here and there DO add up.
  4. For some, they get SO many comments, that it would literally drown my inbox to subscribe.

In case #2 or #4, unsubscribing is a pain (see case #3). I’m not saying I never use this method of tracking where I’ve commented, but it isn’t my favorite and I’m certainly not going to use it to track everything.

I’ll take a moment to once again suggest the Comment Reply Notification plugin for WordPress. This way, you can respond on your blog AND the commenter gets an email with your personalized reply. I can’t tell you how much I dislike Thank Me Later or similar plugins which simply email me to tell me I’ve commented on a site. It’s impersonal and so delayed, I rarely remember visiting the site to begin with. I do not click back to visit these sites again and admittedly, that’s from a bit of spite on my part.

Bookmark/Subscribe to the Site

This is a workable solution for some who have a limited number of sites they read and respond to. This works really well if you read under 50 blogs at a time. Recently, my reading habits (31DBBB) lead me to comment on sites I normally wouldn’t frequent. It’s not that these are BAD sites in any way, but I can only consume SO much. So for these, I’m not going to subscribe and chances are if I took no further action I may never come across this site again or remember on what entry I commented.

But – I’ve invested something into this author and I don’t want their entire existence to fade away from my memory. What’s the solution?

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The Google Reader Experiment

The idea is to “Note in Reader” every post in which I comment. This is the same as “Buzzing” the post, or “Liking” it in Google. Therefore, it’s somewhat beneficial for the site you’re commenting on as well.

If you are not familiar with Google Reader, I highly recommend first reading my post Managing RSS Feeds with Google Reader before trying this.

The process is simple:

  1. Install the Bookmarklet.
  2. Note in Reader.
  3. Review Links (and/or Add them to Your Site!)

Here it is broken down in excruciating detail!

1. Install the Bookmarklet

When you’re logged into Google Reader, go to Settings > Reader Settings on the top right hand side of the window. You can also go to Manage Subscriptions at the bottom left hand corner of the page. From there, click on the Goodies tab.

Right at the top you’ll be given instructions on installing the bookmark. You can just drag the “Note in Reader” link to your bookmark folder or toolbar.

2. Note in Reader Using a Custom Tag

After you comment on a site, click your “Note in Reader” bookmark and a window like the one below will appear at the top right hand side of your browser. If you highlight text before clicking on the bookmark, the highlighted text will appear in the upper box; this is what appears to those who are following your Google Buzz account. In the bottom box, you can add any notes or copy and paste your comment. Again, it will be seen by anyone following your Buzz account.

The important part is to make sure “Add to shared items” is checked (should be by default) and to use a custom tag, such as commented to denote your item. If ALL you use Google Reader for is to track comments like this, I suppose the tag isn’t necessary, but I’m a big fan of putting things into buckets, so I’d still recommend it.

3. Review Your Links or Create a Clip for Your Blog

Go back to Settings > Reader Settings and this time click on the Folders and Tags tab. Scroll down until you see the tag you set up for comments. Mine is “commented”. Here you’ll see a greyed out RSS icon with the word “private” next to it. Just click on that and it will change to an orange RSS icon with the word “public”.

From here, you can easily “view the public page” or “add a clip to your site”.

Here’s my public commented page. Nothing special, since I rarely fill out either box when noting. If all I want to do is go back and read through sites where I left a comment, bookmarking this page makes that super easy.

I find it’s more fun to add a clip to your site. Click that link and you’ll be walked through a process to style and add the clip to your own site. It’s really easy for Blogger blogs and is as simple as copying and pasting some javascript for all others. For my own site, I’m using the WordPress plugin, Google Reader Widget since it gives me complete control over the style of the output.

That’s it!

Going forward, after steps 1 and 3 are completed, you only need to do step 2, Note in Reader, every time you comment on a site!

The Verdict

I’ve tried to keep track of sites via this method since last Monday.

Pros

  • It isn’t automated, but using the bookmarklet, it’s pretty darn easy.
  • You can add a nifty clip to your blog to easily promote the sites on which you comment.
  • It’s the easiest method I could come up with to allow myself to go back and view any posts where I left comments.

Cons

  • It isn’t automated, therefore a bit cumbersome.
  • Frequently, I found myself forgetting to “Note” a post I commented on. I’m not sure how many times I did this and neglected to go back and Note the entry.

I’m still not sure it’s worth my time to do this. I’d do it solely to give some traffic to sites where I comment, but my Click Tracker doesn’t show it’s being used at all. Maybe if I put it in a more prominent place?

I am using my link list though to revisit old posts for a day or two after commenting. I’ll probably keep up the experiment for another week or two to see if it’s worthwhile.

How About YOU?

  1. What method(s) do YOU use to keep track of where you comment, or do you keep track at all?
  2. Do you plan to use this process, or are you using something like it now?
  3. If you’ve used this process, what are your thoughts on it?
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