I’ve reached my limit of frustration with current keyword trackers. The technology is simple enough that it baffles my mind why so many keyword rank trackers are for profit. There doesn’t seem to be a single decent instance of an open source keyword tracker out there that I could find. I want something open and that can run in Linux of course but my searches have left me empty handed.

I’ve started designing my own keyword tracker as a result. I will release it under the GPL because I like to keep it real like that. It will be a Rails application and I will host a version for people to use free of charge (with some limitations so it doesn’t kill my servers). Basically, you can extend the app by creating a Rails plugin for it for different search engines. I will just write one for Google for starters. Hopefully I can get some community support to get more search engines working for it. I’ve got the database mostly planned out and will be starting the project in the next week or two. I will make an instance of Trac to help the collaboration and issue tracking.

Basically, I’ll be creating something that will have multiple users. A user can login and enter a new site or track an existing site. Each site has a set of keywords which the app tracks over time. I want graphs of the keyword activity over time and I want the ability to import keywords and export the rank history. If anyone is interested in helping me out on this project just comment on this post to let me know and I’ll set you up with a Trac account so we can get started.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 at 3:13 pm and is filed under Google, Linux, Ruby on Rails, SEO, Web Design, Web Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.