The YackTrack idea came about a short while ago when there was some discussion regarding blog conversations and commenting. Given that the nature of the internet is distributed, there would always be a problem of who said what where. This problem is just getting worse with the addition of services like Disqus.com, FriendFeed.com and Twitter.com. All of these services allow the user to comment on a topic regardless of the original source of the information.
Given that there are plenty of services that target the user and what they are doing, it seemed logical that there would be a service that tracked who is talking about what. There are services that do a little in this area, but typically they fall short in being a true conversation tracker. Technorati tracks the blogs that talk about other blogs, but miss the comment streams on Digg or Disqus. FriendFeed tracks what you and your friends are doing, but does not link stories together.
This is the point of YackTrack. As a content producer, you can search for comments on your content from various sources or other blogs that talk about your content. Granted, this may sound like it is targeted at the content producer, but it can also help the people commenting on the content themselves. If you have commented on a blog post, you can find other people that are commenting on the post and join the conversation on other sites. Obviously, content producers benefit as they can track various services from just one location. YackTrack currently supports Blogger/Blogspot, Digg, Disqus, FriendFeed, Google Blog Search, IntenseDebate, Mixx, StumbleUpon, Technorati, TypePad/MoveableType and WordPress blogs. Obviously, this list should expand as the site continues to grow.
Another important feature of YackTrack is Chatter. Chatter gives you a keyword search for the social media sites. This allows you to see "chatter" on various sites that talk about a specific keyword. So if you are looking for mentions of Comcast, the cable company, you just enter comcast in the Chatter search box and click the "Find Chatter" button. Similar services exist, but most services are focused just on Twitter chatter. YackTrack Chatter currently supports Mixx, Technorati, Google Blog Search, FriendFeed and Twitter. Again, this list should expand as the site continues to grow.
There is one thing to remember, this is still an early release of the service. Yes, this is still technically a beta release, but all of the sites seem to be a beta. So I am going to ignore that tag and just tell you that more services will be added. More features will be added as well. More importantly, I am looking for feedback from the users in order to ensure that the service is what you really want, not just what I think you want. So, if you have any feedback or questions, please email feedback@yacktrack.com and your suggestions, ideas or concerns will hopefully be answered. Thanks for stopping by.