Z is for Zemanta

So there’s this really nifty service that comes with WordPress called Zemanta.  At least it’s pretty nifty when it works. But it seems to only make an appearance about once a month.  I don’t get it. It’s like a cat: it’s all over you one minute then vanishes.  When it works it’s brilliant.  It delivers pictures and other websites related to the post you’ve written.  Anytime I’ve included images that aren’t my own, except for W for Wild  when I included images from Linda Wilder Art – they have been images delivered by Zemanta.

When Zemanta works, while I’m writing the post, it starts purring like a pussy cat, and all these pictures turn up at the bottom of the post and I can choose to use the ones I like.  The variety of images Zemanta delivers is quite astounding. If I don’t like any of the images delivered first time round, I can refine the recommendations by entering keys words, and it sends a whole whack of new images.

When I wrote the Love and Baking Cakes post, it didn’t deliver an image I really liked, but the woman cracking the two eggs into the bowl seemed most appropriate so I used it.  Then the next post I wrote – M is for Money – it sent me this really cool image of a man and woman baking a cake together, but that had nothing to do with money!  So I wondered if maybe it had just found the image and remembered me, so I went back to the Love and Baking Cakes posts and got Zemanta working, but it didn’t send the really cool image of the man and woman!  I have no idea how to find that image without Zemanta, nor does it seem able to deliver it when I want it!

As I said, it also delivers related websites, which are usually pretty relevant.  I usually check them before linking, but – yup – for the Love and Baking Cakes, by the time I wrote the post, I was so burnt out from making the audio track that I just clicked on everything it sent and one of them linked to a soft porn page!!!!! Well, it was a flash fiction page. Now I have no probs with flash fiction, so I just clicked on it without checking it out first, then a little later, when I had time, I checked it out and well…it wasn’t really my thing.  Pictures of naked women and a poem that wasn’t really appropriate so I deselected it.

Anyway, Zemanta hasn’t worked on my blog since P is for Pause – and wow the images it delivered for that were brilliant!  But it’s been 9 posts since it worked!!!

Zemanta, where are you? Why are you so unreliable?  I want you here all the time.  I get way more hits when you turn up and deliver images!   You are so like a cat, and as I told your friendly tech support guy, when I get another cat, I’m going to call it Zemanta.  He wrote me back such a nice email:

Hi Alison!

Zemanta would be such a cool cat! We want pictures.
Now, about your problem. I can’t really think of a good reason why Zemanta wouldn’t load randomly. Could be network problems. Is this all on one blog?
You know that Zemanta won’t work on private blogs, right? That could happen if you were switching between blogs with different privacy settings.

Which browser is this happening in? Maybe you should try and just install our Browser Add-on. It extends the functionality a bit so it’s even more fun to use.
Get it at www.zemanta.com/download

Let me know if anything changes and send pictures of your cat.

Best regards,
Rok

So I wondered if it wasn’t working because my browser was set to private? So I clicked my browser off private and it still didn’t work.

Oh my oh my, I just clicked my browser off private and it logged me out of WordPress and I had to log back in and Zemanta – dear pussy cat -is ALL OVER ME!!!!
Oh Zemanta you sweet pussy cat, I had no idea if my browser was set to private that you thought you couldn’t come in! And now I see, if I click off private, I have to log out of WordPress and log back in again with my browser off private so you know the door is open!!!

Anyway, this is my Z post.  I’m done with the A-Z challenge and am taking a few days off while I wait for my new internet connection, then I’m starting A-Z food as per a challenge from a guy I met half way through this A-Z.  We were talking about my blog posts, and I had just written the G post and he said I was too philosophical and I said my food posts seemed to be popular (all 2 of them!) so he challenged me to writing A-Z food posts…..

A is for Apple….

B is for Banana…

C is for Cherries…

etc….
See you at the supermarket!

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