Blog de Puree

A week ago, European startup Zemanta launched in Alpha with a product for blogs to suggest links, pictures and other related content and tags while you write blog posts. It uses a semantic analysis engine that serves up the relevant information in your Internet browser as you write.

According to TechCrunch, this type of application only exists in academic and enterprise content management systems, not for the blogosphere. Demos are available now for WordPress, Typepad and Blogger in a Firefox browser.

I haven’t tried Zemanta yet, but I immediately thought of a similar software company that my father-in-law started called 3DWriter for schools and students. The concept is similar in that it enables linking text to relevant websites and Internet sources. Much like many current systems, the act of linking is a manual process, however, and one needs to highlight text, find the relevant link, click the link icon and insert the URL. Just like I do on this blog.

Zemanta has taken this to a new level; it automatically culls the information for you, saving the manual legwork of finding the information yourself. As an oft-lazy blogger, I’m excited to see how it develops because linking is a great way to enhance the richness of information available for a blog post and it adds to one’s search engine optimization.

As for 3DWriter, at $249 a pop to license it for an entire school (Compared to the obscene prices for Microsoft academic licensing), it’s an absolute steal for a product that students can use to create robust reports and term papers that utilize basic Web technology and concepts while developing their writing skills. It also develops research competency using the Internet. Combine that with a teacher that knows how to bring technology into the classroom and you have a powerful and affordable teaching tool.