What is Zemanta?

Zemanta provides a way to enhance your blog posts by searching for keywords within your posts and suggesting related content. Additionally, Zemanta suggests post tags that you can use, so that it’s easier for search engines to index your posts, or readers to find content within your site.

Zemanta helps alleviate plagiarism because all of the material is free to use or links back to the original.  Zemanta also works with Gmail and Yahoo! Mail. If you are writing e-newsletters, this provides a way to enrich your newsletters, so that your readers want to continue their subscriptions. It’s point-and-click approach is a timesaver that gives you more time to think up more blog posts or e-newsletter items. According to their site, they have access to over 5-million pictures, 5-million articles, and 10-million related content. Therefore, there are plenty of items to use.

What does Zemanta work with?

Below is a diagram of what apps work with Zemanta, and what kind of content Zemanta brings in:

You can also register with Zemanta, so that you are able to bring in user-defined content from different sites (e.g. Twitter, Mashable, Facebook, etc.). Zemanta allows you to input your Amazon Associates ID, so you can link to books, cds, and any other product on the Amazon affiliate system. If you click on the “My Stuff” image, you will only search through this content. When you unclick it, you are able to search the entire Zemanta database.

How can I use Zemanta?

There are four ways to use Zemanta:

1. Browser Add-On – Zemanta can be added on Firefox or Internet Explorer.  Whenever you open your blogging platform, regardless of which one it is, Zemanta will open up and allow you to add related content to your blog. If you use the add-on and use Gmail or Yahoo! Mail, Zemanta adds an “Add Zemanta” button in your Compose box, so you can also enhance your emails or e-newsletters.
2. Bookmarklet – If you are using one of the other browsers or don’t feel like using the add-on, you can add the bookmarklet instead. When you press it, it will provide the same interface, like the add-on.
3. Live Writer Plugin – For Live Writer users, the Zemanta plugin enhances the application to better help you write your blog posts.
4. Server-Side Plugin – You can download plugins for either WordPress, MovableType, or Drupal. It works just like the browser add-on and bookmarklet.  However, you are not able to use it within your email.

I am still not convinced.  Can I test it out?

Zemanta has an interactive demo that allows you to input text, and see how Zemanta can work for you.