The official coComment weblog

We’re exited to tell you that coComment has just joined forces in a strategic partnership with Social Spark as part of the Social Spark Solution Center.

As many of coComment’s users are also bloggers, we wanted to give you the opportunity to find out about Social Spark, a company that allows boggers to make money by either placing display adss on their blog or by writing sponsored content. Through Social Spark, advertisers are able to target blogs based on conversational topics and make cash sponsorship offers to the bloggers who publish them. As part of the partnership, Social Spark will provide their bloggers with the opportunity to enhance the commenting experience on their blogs through coComment.

In effort to make coComment an even more effective experience, we’re going to be launching similar strategic partnerships in the future. Email us at info@cocomment.com and tell us what other partners you’d like to see coming on board.

The coComment Team

Although this new release of Firefox is a major step forward in term of features and performance, it does not come without issues. We were, we confess, more than a little surprised to find that it was not backwards compatible. We’ve been monitoring the development over the last months and hoping that this would be fixed BUT, as we all now know, that did not happen and the final release is not fully backward compatible with Firefox 2.

There are two areas we are working on right now:

This means that, right now, you will almost certainly experience compatibility issues with coComment if used with Firefox Version 3. We would therefore recommend that you DO NOT UPGRADE yet.

If you absolutely need to use Firefox 3 then you can still use the coComment bookmarklet bookmarklet to capture your comments.

Please stay tuned for more news.

coComment joins the video conversations through the integration with Seesmic. You can now manage your video conversations with coComment and watch your favorite commenters, like Danny Bonaduce and Marina from HotForWords. Go ahead, give it a try, it’s easy, just click on the video tab in the comment section and record your opinions.

Danny Bonaduce (remember him from the Partridge Family) was just on CNN Showbiz Tonight talking about how he uses coComment. To put it in simple terms, when Danny comments on Britney, Lindsey, Paris, coComment allows him to remember all the places where he’s left comments, whether it’s on LATimes, TMZ, and PerezHilton. With coComment, Danny can keep track and manage all his comments on any site and lets him know when you guys respond, as simple as that. When Danny comments on any article, blog, or social network, his fans will automatically follow me, have the choice to read his responses, and join his conversations at www.coComment.com/comments/DannyB. Last, Danny will be talking more about how he uses coComment and will be reading his users’ comments on-air, on his 97.1FreeFM show, so stay tuned.

We’re happy to announce another fun initiative with flirtatious Marina from HotForWords. As some of you know, Marina gained huge popularity across the web through her unique etymology lessons, teaching her users the origin of words. Now she’s teaming up with coComment again, so when Marina comments on any site, her students follow and back her up via her coComment account or coComment HotForWords Group, and join in the hot conversation discussing the origins of words. Go ahead, get started and make your teacher look like a rock-star!

If this is your first encounter with Marina, she is Wired’s #1 Sexy Geek, is a regular guest on Maxim Radio and Bill O’Rilley, and was mentioned in Cosmopolitan Magazine as one of the top 3 channels on YouTube - as her tag-line at the beginning of her videos states “Intelligence is Sexy.â€

We wanted to tell you about the “31 Day Comment Challenge”, a fun contest coComment user Edublog strated just a few days ago.

What is the “31 Day Comment Challenge”?
One of the organizers, Sue Waters from Edublogs told us they created the contest with the goal to “showcase the importance of commenting on blogs, as it’s a crucial aspect of blogging conversations for achieving the greatest learning”. The experience is fun and the contest has had great momentum thus far, not to mention the cool prizes!

Anyone can join the contest — educators, school students, non-profit bloggers, corporate bloggers etc. In fact the best part of the challenge is you don’t have to be a blogger! Just add your name to the Comment Challenge Wiki (or if unsure how to add your name leave a comment on this post here and Sue will add it for you).

We hope you check it out and start commenting!

coComment is partnering with Marina from HotForWords at the PopSugar/TechCrunch event … blogging live from the event! So be sure to go here during the event and post comments for Marina to respond to!

Here is the info on the event:

This should be a LOT OF FUN!

Marina will be asking random people if the know the correct origins of some common words and phrases.. we will be videotaping it and uploading the video LIVE during the event! We will also upload the answer videos at around 9pm.

Be sure to come here during the event to blog with Marina live.. or, perhaps we’ll see you at the event in person!

PopSugar TechCrunch

-Marina - HotForWords

coComment started, as a company, in January 2007. coComment, the concept, is significantly older having first seen the light of day as a proof of concept demo at the Lift 06 conference.

In that time, we have transformed what was a concept into a company with a very different (and much larger) product set, built a team of 22 people and acquired over 1.15million users.

However, in all that time, we’ve not made a cent/penny/grivna in revenues nor have we sought to do so. The funding from coComment has come solely from its investors.

For us, 2008 is a critical year. It is the time when we need to go from ‘promising startup’ to ‘viable business’ and a key part of that is starting to generate revenues. We want to do so in a manner that does not alienate our users nor distract them from what they want to do with coComment.

We have therefore started running advertising on the site, in our feeds to others sites and in coComment windows. I know, of course, that most people would prefer to see advertising-free services but the reality is, of course, that ultimately we cannot provide the service to you without generating revenues.

I also want us to offer our users the opportunity to have an ad-free service for an annual fee of $5.

I’ve seen some comments on other blogs … but not many. I therefore wanted to raise the issue here so that everyone has an opportunity to respond and let us know what they think. We’re all in favour of conversations so we’re happy to start one about this and get your views.

Best regards,

Matt.

coComment.com is taking a different approach to the Starbucks “The Way I See It†campaign by offering free coffee and thought-provoking unfinished sentences on coffee sleeves to start real conversations. If you are in San Francisco on April 4th, stop by and have a cup of coffee on us in Union Square or just jump in the conversation and win more free coffee.

Why are we doing this?
Starbucks launched their “The Way I See It†campaign as way of creating conversation. Putting supposedly interesting quotes on coffee cups only created controversy that Starbucks was ultra-liberal and looking to promote a political agenda. coComment, a service which allows you to enjoy the full potential of comment-based conversation on the web, is taking a stand to promote real conversations the old-fashioned way – by buying people a cup of coffee and asking them to complete thought-provoking sentences on their Web site (http://www.cocomment.com). Coffee drinkers can finish sentences such as “if I learned definitively that God does exist, I would _____†and “if I could name my own presidential candidate, it would be______†along with four others that people can finish online and review other people’s ideas. coComment team will be available at the event for interviews and talk about better conversations on the Web, or just email me at kristina@cocomment.com

Thanks
Kristina

Red Herring announced that coComment was named a Finalist of Red Herring 100 Europe, an award given to the top 100 private technology companies based in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region each year.

“To be a young company named as a finalist of Red Herring 100 Europe is an honor,†stated Matt Colebourne, CEO of coComment. “While we are proud of what coComment has achieved in a short amount of time, we are even more excited about the initiatives that we will be introducing to our product and the site later this year.â€

“This year’s impressive list of submissions from companies demonstrates Europe’s growing role as a major center of innovation in the global technology sector,†said Red Herring Editor-in-Chief Joel Dreyfuss. “The exceptional accomplishments of European technology startups and entrepreneurs are a testament to the rapid advancements being made in building the European innovation ecosystem.â€

Red Herring’s lists of top private companies are an important part of the publication’s tradition of identifying new and innovative technology companies and entrepreneurs. Companies like Google, eBay, and Skype were spotted in their early days by Red Herring editors, and touted as leaders that would change the way we live and work.

Red Herring’s editorial staff rigorously evaluated several hundred private companies through a careful analysis of financial data and subjective criteria, including quality of management, execution of strategy, and dedication to research and development.

Red Herring will honor the Red Herring 100 Europe Finalist companies at its Red Herring Europe 2008 event. Scheduled for April 14-16, at the Westin Dragonara Resort, this intimate, three-day event is themed “The Pursuit of Disruption†and will explore how European firms are leading the charge in many technology sectors, gaining the competitive advantage, and driving entrepreneurial success in ways that create business opportunities for challengers and incumbents alike.

About Red Herring
Red Herring is a global media company which unites the world’s best high technology innovators, venture investors and business decision makers in a variety of forums: a leading innovation magazine, an online daily technology news service, technology newsletters and major events for technology leaders around the globe. Red Herring provides an insider’s access to the global innovation economy, featuring unparalleled insights on the emerging technologies driving the economy. More information about Red Herring is available on the Internet at www.redherring.com.