Zemanta Review

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Image via Wikipedia

Have you heard of Zemanta? No its not a drug, although that’s what I originally thought, too. Zemanta is a tool that recommends links, tags, images and related articles as you type a blog entry. I found out about it a few weeks ago, and was intrigued enough that I installed the Firefox plug-in right away. Three blog entries later and I’m sold, I love it.

What It Does
As you type in a blog entry, Zemanta looks through your text for keywords, if it recognizes one, it surfs the web for links, images, tags and articles that are related, and displays them next to your entry. If you agree that these articles are relevant to your post, just click the appropriate button and Zemanta adds the link (or image) to your post.

Why It Matters
First, your posts become more interesting to read when you link to related content on the web, show pictures to illustrate concepts and link to other articles that either support or contrast with your claim. In other words, your readers will find your work more appealing.

Second, Zemanta makes it easier for your blog to be found. By using the tags that Zemanta recommends, you’ll be categorizing your content with the same keywords that others are using, which will ultimately have an impact on the traffic your blog receives through search engines. If Zemanta picks up on something that you blog about, others on the web will find out about it as they blog on related topics. If they link to your post, your blog just became more popular.

Review
Okay, so now that you have a grasp of what this tool does, here’s what I think of it. This is such a great idea! Why on earth hasn’t this been done before? Seriously? I mean, there isn’t any revolutionary technology at play here, this is just a tool that recommends content based on what you’re tying in.

So far I’ve tried the Firefox extension, the WordPress plugin and the Windows Live Writer plugin. As promised, they each work identically, so it doesn’t matter which you use. They also offer plugins for Drupal, Movable Type as well as an extension for Internet Explorer. I have no reason to believe that they’d work any differently. The only blog engine that I’ve tried it with is WordPress, but I did try it with two different themes, and all of the features (pictures from Flickr, lists, links, etc) rendered perfectly in both themes. If you use an image from Flickr or Wikipedia, credit for the image is handled automatically.

The content loads quickly, though I’ve only tried it with a broadband connection. I wouldn’t even attempt this tool with dialup. All of the buttons work flawlessly, which I was impressed with. It works well enough that you really don’t even think about it, it just offers up recommendations in the background as you type.

Bottom Line
Honestly, now that I know about this, it doesn’t make sense to me to blog without it anymore. As a blogger, I want for my work to be tagged appropriately and categorized correctly. I want to link to other sites when appropriate. And I like showing images to my readers. Zemanta makes all of that a breeze, so I get to focus on quality writing. The tool works flawlessly, so what’s not to like. I wish I had thought of it.

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