When I use the “Track Comment” applet (?) to flag a blog post for tracking, it’d be nice if com.ments would automatically note which comments were already visible in my browser, and would then track new comments over and above those initial comments.

Great product, BTW; I use it every day.

Your tracking page and tracking feed are for your own use. But what if you want to share your tracking list with others?

Now you can do that in three different ways. Your public page shows all the conversations you are currently tracking, and there’s also a public Web feed you can share with others. Your account settings page shows where your public page and public Web feed are.

You can also share your tracking list on your blog, Web page or any other place that allows you to use JavaScript. Your settings page includes a short snippet you can paste into any HTML page to show your tracking list.

You asked for e-mail alerts, so I added two types of e-mail alerts. Both provide the same information as the Web feed, but in a slightly different way.

Digest e-mail alerts send you an e-mail with a list of comments in all the conversations you are following. You will receive an e-mail that groups several conversations together, an easy way to be notified. If you can’t check your Web feed often, or want to receive notifications through cell phone or PDA, digest e-mail alerts are a good choice.

Individual e-mail alerts send you e-mail alerts for each individual conversation. You will receive more e-mails than digest. If you use your e-mail client to group (or thread) e-mails, then you can keep track of all comments from the same conversation. This screen shot is GMail grouping two e-mail alerts for the same conversation:

To start receiving e-mail alerts, you need to follow these four steps:

1. First, head over to your your account settings page and click the link to verify your e-mail address.
2. Check your inbox, in a few minutes you will receive an e-mail from co.mments.
3. Click the link in the e-mail to verify your e-mail address. You’re now ready to receive e-mail alerts.
4. Again, head over to your your account settings page, click the “Send Alerts” button and choose whether you want digest or individual e-mail alerts.

For security reasons, you’ll need to verify your e-mail address once, and every time you change your e-mail address.

Afterwards, you can turn e-mail alerts on and off at any time, and you can always switch from digest to individual and back.

Would it be possible to put the “Clear” button AFTER the comments? That way, when reading a lot of new comments, we wouldn’t have to scroll all the way back to the top to click on the Clear button.