This is the official blog of YackTrack, a social media monitor and conversation tracker. Below is a description of YackTrack the service and the reasons why it exists.

Why was YackTrack built?

The YackTrack idea came about back in April 2008 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.

What does YackTrack do?

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, Google Reader, Identi.ca, IntenseDebate, Mixx, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Technorati, Twitter, 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, Identi.ca, Technorati, Google Blog Search, FriendFeed and Twitter. Again, this list should expand as the site continues to grow.

Where is YackTrack going?

There is a lot of activity in this space, so there will continue to be more services that will be added. More features will be added as well. I am looking to add things like notificationsand reporting. 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. You can also go to our support forum over on GetSatisfaction. Thanks for stopping by.