If you have a blog on WordPress.com, you may have noticed a new feature called Possibly Related that links posts from other blogs in the Comments section of posts on your blog.
The crew at Automattic introduced the feature in late April to add an element of social networking to blogging. At least that’s what Automattic founder Matt Mullenweg said when I interviewed him recently.
Possibly Related is basically software that trolls the blogosphere looking for blog posts with keywords that are similar to keywords on a new post that you’ve written. When it finds a good match, the software automatically lists a couple posts at the end of your post.
So far, reaction to the new feature has been pretty mixed. When it first appeared, Possibly Related wasn’t doing a very good job of picking posts. WordPress users reported the new feature was automatically generating links to some pretty questionable stuff, including links to X-rated sites.
On the other hand, I kind of like it, because it gives my readers other places to go to find out more about what I’m writing about.
WordPress bloggers can opt out of Possibly Related by changing the Design settings on their blog. To do that, go to Dashboard, Design, Extras and check the box that states: “Hide related links on this blog, which means this blog won’t show up on other’s blogs or get traffic that way.”
According to Mullenweg, Possibly Related’s post-matching should improve over time in much the same way Automattic’s Akismet blog comment spam filtering software gets smarter about determining what is and isn’t spam as more people use it.
source: michellerafter
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