The Chat Catcher is Out of the Bag
Back in February of 2008 I created a service called TweetTrack. The idea was pretty simple, scan Twitter for links to blog posts, and then post the tweets to each respective blog as a trackback. It was an experiment, and I figured there was a good chance that it wouldn’t work as I hoped, but I decided to see how far I could take the concept. I contacted the owner of Terraminds (remember?) and asked him if I could use his Twitter Search API to run the TweetTrack service. He agreed, and I began processing data from Terraminds and posting the tweets to my WordPress.com site. Everything worked perfectly for the first 24 hours. Tweets were showing up on blogs all over the world and the experiment appeared to be a success, until the spam filters kicked in, marking the end of TweetTrack.
The solution to the TweetTrack problem was to let each blog manage its own trackbacks. At the time, I didn’t have the desire to put the additional effort into the project and so I let it float to the side for awhile. Toward the end of 2008, I decided to pickup the idea again and build a client piece that each blog would control. The new version of the service, named Chat Catcher, is working on this blog and several others. I’ve been quietly testing the service with a few users, and I wanted to keep it quiet until I could be sure that it was running smoothly. Luckily, one of my blog posts was passed along on Twitter quite a bit, so I have had ample opportunity to put it through its paces.
The Chat Catcher project continues to go well and I am making adjustments to the service as I run into issues. I have a lot of ideas for the service (analytics, for one) and some other things bouncing around in my head. You may notice that I opted to leave out the "Tw" reference to Twitter in the new name. This is intentional and should provide a clue to some of my other ideas.
Chat Catcher is new and it isn’t perfect, but I’m done keeping quiet. You’re welcome to give it a try and help me make improvements. As I like to say for most of my projects, this is your service as much as it is mine. Let’s build it together.
Try Chat Catcher and feel free to let me know what you think. The service works with any type of blog, but it has special coding for WordPress. It will also process links on Twitter from any url shortening service (tinyurl.com, bit.ly, is.gd, twurl, etc.).
I’d like to thank some of my early adopters for helping me get this far with Chat Catcher.
Ari Herzog – http://www.ariwriter.com
Glen Turpin – http://www.glenturpin.com
Todd Defren – http://www.pr-squared.com
Dave Fleet – http://davefleet.com
Roger Byrne (Styletime) http://on.eti.me
Andrea Hill – http://www.afhill.com/blog
Glen Turpin – http://www.glenturpin.com
Joshua Kahn – http://find-attract.com
Michelle Wolverton – http://chelpixie.com/blog
Mike Keliher – http://www.unjournalism.com
I’m sure I’ve left some people out, and I apologize in advance. Please feel free to add a comment below with a link to your blog if you’re a current user.
Mike Keliher said,
Wrote on January 8, 2009 @ 8:14 am
From one of those early adopters: I love Chat Catcher. It’s simple and effective, and it’s one of the few bits of “blog bling” that actually adds something meaningful, both for my readers and for me.
Chat Catcher is a great tool for tracking conversations that would otherwise be left strewn about the Web.
Ari Herzog said,
Wrote on January 8, 2009 @ 9:46 am
Echoing Mike, I’d add that even more than my enjoyment is my readers’ enjoyment, as they continually ask me how it works. Now I can show them this post.
Thanks Shannon!
Mike Keliher said,
Wrote on January 8, 2009 @ 7:17 pm
By the way: Terraminds?! Thinking back to that service, though it was only months ago that I used it regularly, is like thinking about watching “Saved by the Bell.”
Andrea Hill said,
Wrote on January 8, 2009 @ 9:15 pm
I like the fact that chat catcher is hosted locally; I’ve been playing around with it because I wanted a way to redirect comments made on Twitter but not referencing the specific URL (so far I’m just retweeting from a dummy account, including the URL so chat catcher grabs it, then stripping it to show the original tweet. Fun stuff!
Shannon Whitley said,
Wrote on January 9, 2009 @ 2:34 am
Thanks for the comments. I appreciate your support. Next feature is coming soon (if I can get my RSS in gear).
And yes, Mike, just like “Saved by the Bell” (LOL)
tttwo (tttwo) said,
Wrote on January 12, 2009 @ 9:19 am
Twitter Comment
Chat Catcher – Twitter trackbacks to your blog (plus I just wanted an example for this post) – [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
ejly said,
Wrote on January 12, 2009 @ 9:20 am
Looks neat! I’ll give it a try and let you know how it goes
mjkeliher (Mike Keliher) said,
Wrote on January 14, 2009 @ 8:44 am
Twitter Comment
Have Twitter messages with links to your blog posts show up as comments on those posts automatically with Chat Catcher [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
mjkeliher (Mike Keliher) said,
Wrote on January 14, 2009 @ 8:45 am
Twitter Comment
Chat Catcher works on any blog platform, and is now also available as a simple .php script or a fancy WordPress plug-in [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
tttwo (tttwo) said,
Wrote on January 15, 2009 @ 6:24 pm
[...] This is a test [link to post] – Posted using Chat [...]
KyNam Doan said,
Wrote on January 19, 2009 @ 2:06 am
Hello Shannon, I’m really excited to use Chat Catcher, but activating keeps throwing the following error: “Your script could not be verified.”
This is what I’ve done:
1. I dled the wordpress plugin
2. Installed it on WP 2.7
3. Got a secret from the website supplied
4. Changed the ‘Y’ to a ‘N’ $postTrackbacks = ‘N’;
If you have time, I would appreciate the help. Thanks again.
AriWriter said,
Wrote on January 22, 2009 @ 10:19 am
How Chat Catcher is More Inclusive Than TweetBacks…
With the ongoing battle of (t)wits between Dan Zarrella, Joost de Valk, Shannon Whitley, Jeremy Hilton, and other developers of plugins and scripts enabling Twitter messages to appear amid blog comments and trackbacks, recent readers of AriWriter asked…