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BlogCatalog, SezWho

January 30th, 2008
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So I saw a post on TechCrunch today about a partnership between BlogCatalog, which is a cross between a blog directory and a social network, and SezWho, which is a distribution comment reputation system.

I signed up for BlogCatalog (reminds me of when I listed my blog on Technorati), and there was an optional signup for SezWho, since BlogCatalog is simply that, a catalog. SezWho is available only on MovableType and self hosted Wordpress (which I am running). BlogCatalog is taking some time to verify my account, which involves me having to put a BlogCatalog badge on my blog (pretty slick) in order to “verify” that I’m the guy who signed up my blog (see it there, in the left column, under “Networks”?. A 1×1 pixel beacon would be a little less evil. :-)

Neither one of these services have good syndication devices, which in the case of SezWho is surprising. The widgets, “Badge” and “Red Carpet” violate my layout, and there isn’t a syndication device available to add the SezWho links per comment to show the stats for the commenter (if they happen to be known to the SezWho network). The badge I was forced to put on my blog to end up in the BlogCatalog system links to the category I put my blog under. Not sure how that is helpful, when I filed it under “Internet” with the 3,541 other “Internet” blogs (at the time of this writing). Why would someone want to go there? Why wouldn’t it link to a page about MY blog?

So, I’d say, there’s a lot of work to be done. There wasn’t a single syndication badge from SezWho to put on my blog that wasn’t a widget, which made me go back and widgetize all of my badges/custom things (more on that later). Then when I finished, as I said above here, the widgets didn’t work with my theme.

Disappointing.

Update (January 31st, 2008 @8:15am): I got a few comments from BlogCatalog friendlies (employees?) pointing out that BlogCatalog allows you put a meta tag on your blog vs. a badge for account verification. It is indeed, as they point out, on the same page as the badges, albeit all the way at the bottom (missed it!). It looks like this:

MetaTag for BlogCatalog

So thanks BlogCatalog team. I’m impressed by your responsiveness. I’ll leave the badge in for now. Cheers.

tdrapeau Blog, Comments, Technology

  • Thanks for trying out SezWho...and thanks for the interesting feedback on having feeds...If I am hearing you correctly, you are talking about having a feed on the activity of commenters on your site which has the information about the commenters activity on other sites? Is that right? I think that is a very interesting idea and something we gotta look into doing.

    -Jitendra
  • If you look on the same page as the Blogcatalog widgets, you will see that there is an option just to include a meta tag rather than something in the sidebar.
    Most of the Blogcatalog widgets can be heavily customized to fit any layout, you just need to be aware of limitations of your blog theme in regards to width and height that can be used in the intended area.
    I am not a huge fan of Wordpress widgets, as they generally force all content to display on every page of your blog.
  • Thanks for joining BlogCatalog and checking out the SezWho Plugin. Your blog has been approved :) Another verification option, aside from adding the badge, is to add a meta tag which enables us to verify your blog without you having to display a badge.
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