Version 0.8.9

Published the 0.8.9 version. Changelog:

• Fixed bug #26 (Update user's RSS link with search criteria)
• Fixed bug #28 (Checkbox to select/deselect all messages in Inbox)
• New stats page URL: you can reach the bookmark stats at http://smarking.com/stats/MD5(URL), such as http://smarking.com/stats/ff90821feeb2b02a33a6f9fc8e5f3fcd for http://www.google.com/
  
• Added micro-caching to serve results faster
• Now Smarking autodiscovers trackbacks and pings back, linking the stats page

I hope that the new trackback feature will not be considered SPAM. I've thinked several times to the question and I believe that it will be appreciated by bloggers, because they can see how people rate their post, which tags are associated, and the comments of Smarking users about it.

Please contact us at info (at) smarking (dot) com if you have any thoughts about  :-)

Comments

[maxpower]

2 things I'm not sure I like about this new version:
1. Trackbacks - as a webmaster I get to decide what shows up on my site. I don't think I like smarking links showing up. Sell it to me, what do I get?

2. My webpages showing up within small frames on your site. Again, sell this to me. What do I get by having my content appear in its entirety on your page?

[Fabio Vescarelli]

1) Trackbacks: I think it would be useful for both bloggers and readers. You and your readers get the opportunity to know what Smarking users think about the post (rating, tags, descriptions, comments). Isn't this the general TrackBack spirit?
Anyway, if you really don't like the Smarking trackback I can change the software in order to avoid the ping to your specific domain. Just let me know :)

2) Preview in stats page: it's an additional invitation for Smarking users to visit your website. Why do you think it's useless for you?

[maxpower]

1) From my POV, trackbacks let me know when someone else refers to my content. In a sense, it allows visitors to follow 'the story' around the web. A trackback to smarking is a dead end as there is no more information about the topic being discussed.

2) First, I never said useless. Second, Smarking users may get an additional invitation to view my page -- but why would they? The get to see everything in its entirety without actually visiting. While trackbacks could be viewed as 'value added' I don't see what benefits I get from having smarking show my page in a frame. This is why I suggest you have to sell (or convince me) that this is good for me.

From a more jaded perspective (and I'm playing devils advocate now) advertisements on smarking could be viewed as competing with advertisements on my website when my content is viewed in a frame. Even if you don't have advertisements now, you might in the future. This surely will upset people.

I wouldn't pretend to be a top blog or a person of influence on the internet -- I'm just a curious webmaster. I'm sure you could modify smarking to not perform these actions for my site, but I suspect that other people will begin to ask these questions too.

[Fabio Vescarelli]

> A trackback to smarking is a dead end as there is
> no more information about the topic being discussed

Well, Smarking is not Digg but I think that the information on the Smarking stats page is potentially useful: descriptions, comments, and maybe a "Related links" (still to be implemented) give more information about the topic.

An alternative to give Smarking trackbacks more value could be to add stats directly in the TB text (such as number of users, top tags, average rating).

> Smarking users may get an additional invitation to
> view my page -- but why would they?
> The get to see everything in its entirety
> without actually visiting

The preview box is small, useless for a complete reading but enogh to let the user decide if the document is interesting for his needs.
One solution could be a non-automatic preview, such as a "Show preview" button that opens the small iframe with the document.

> I'm sure you could modify smarking to
> not perform these actions for my site,
> but I suspect that other people
> will begin to ask these questions too

That's why I've thinked many times before writing the trackback feature, and now I'm asking people what they think about :-)

[Francesco]

There are more and more plugin allowing visitor to bookmark a post. This trackback could be a way to complete the cycle: I offer you a quick way to bookmark this post or page, I am then glad to know someone did it. I don't see this as a dead end. It's an information that can help the conversation: if you get 1 comment and 100 bookmarks this is an information pretty interesting.

Just my .02 cents :)