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Snap Preview (continued)
Twelve comments so far about Snap Preview and all of them negative.
I am taking it down sometime in the next day or two unless I start hearing from people who like it.
Comments (27) | Posted January 7, 2007 in Bling , Venture Capital and Technology
Comments
Fred, here are a couple hundred people who think it's the best thing since sliced bread -- http://wordpress.com/blog/2006/12/29/snap-to-it/
I guess those of use who side with Lorelle (http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2006/12/29/wordpresscom-please-stop-using-snap-preview/) are in the minority.
Posted by: Michael | Jan 7, 2007 6:34:53 PM
The problem is that I don't read with my cursor, I read with my eyes. If I'm "reaching" to a link to click on it, my mind is made up, I've already decided it's something I want to see.
If the point is to improve the decision making progress on what to click on, snap previews don't work.
P.S. Sorry about the Jets...
Posted by: Erik Schwartz | Jan 7, 2007 7:08:57 PM
Fred,
I see it as sort of a gimmick. It’s clever, but serves no real purpose, and it could become annoying, like a pop up. I have a magnifier on an optical mouse (another gimmick that is cute, but has very little practical use, since we can save and zoom in almost infinitely on anything we truly need or want). I’m with Erik on this one.
Posted by: Stephen L. McKay | Jan 7, 2007 8:27:34 PM
I personally like it - it gives me an idea of what the destination is before I click. You don't need to read it - you can tell the style of the destination by the layout - blog, photo site, etc. I have put it on my personal blog.
Posted by: Chris Hamoen | Jan 7, 2007 9:05:43 PM
I don't like it, but that should prevent you from trying it out - you should just make sure everyone knows that you can globally opt out of Snap by visiting http://real.snap.com/about/spa_faq.php?disable_spa=1
Posted by: Nic | Jan 7, 2007 10:39:49 PM
Uh, "...that shouldN'T prevent you..."
Posted by: Nic | Jan 7, 2007 10:40:56 PM
Count me on the "I hate it" side.
At first it seems cool, but once the novelty wears off it's just annoying.
Posted by: paul | Jan 7, 2007 10:50:39 PM
I really don't mind it. I actually think its pretty cool. If I have not made up mind of which link I will click then a quick preview is great. " I like it "
Posted by: Trevor | Jan 8, 2007 12:19:19 AM
I love Snap. It's the only "search2.0" company that's gets me excited. I admit I watched it in action on other sites and found it distracting at first. But then one day I found myself thinking about how often I've wished I could mouseover place names on a website and a get an onscreen Google Maps pop-up showing me the location. I immediately put Snap on my site because they're closest to making that dream a reality. Also, what's the back-button stat? The average user on the average webpage hits the back button after seventeen... or is it seven seconds? Now I can eliminate those two clicks on 30... maybe 40% of URLs on Snap-enabled websites! That may sound like crazytalk now, but as media gets richer and richer, I see increasing value in Snap previews leveraging that improved user experience into real search-related revenue. It's the firefox/google searchbox deal on every snap-enabled link on the internet! Hey on second thought, where's my rev-share? :)
Posted by: Jonah | Jan 8, 2007 12:21:10 AM
I agree with Chris - I like it - I put it on my blog as well. I like the idea of previewing at least the layout of where I'm going before I click. So much of what I read is via BlogLines, somebody needs to mashup BlogLines and Snap :) Maybe I need to look for that solution at userscripts.org Keep up the good work, Fred!
Posted by: Kyle Welsh | Jan 8, 2007 12:33:36 AM
hey i love thus far and have added to my site, more on this later .. bummer for the jets .,..
Posted by: simon | Jan 8, 2007 1:24:39 AM
I had it on my wordpress.com account, but I agree with Lorelle's arguments. Bad for accessibility, performance, etc.. I disabled it again.
Posted by: andyp | Jan 8, 2007 3:51:46 AM
I think it's cool stuff
it makes surfing much faster
it limits unwanted clicks to minimum
and...you can always turn it off on your side
Posted by: trazyk | Jan 8, 2007 4:11:39 AM
Good! I was just going to post a negative comment as well. It's just as annoying as those old skool pop-up ads, and every bit as useless.
Posted by: Rik | Jan 8, 2007 4:39:31 AM
I find it very annoying. I think the value is a simple tool to show the most popular links that people are clicking. The exploration part of finding them and having it hover the links is distracting.
thanks for removing them:)
Posted by: noah kagan | Jan 8, 2007 4:42:44 AM
i don't like it. it's useless.
Posted by: heyyou | Jan 8, 2007 6:40:29 AM
I find it useful and timesaving to see the link before clicking it. Im a minority here but I think this is a great widget. Just recently started reading. ..Great Blog .
Posted by: ben | Jan 8, 2007 8:22:02 AM
I like the snap widget. Maybe it is because I am only 24, but I prefer it.
Posted by: Greg | Jan 8, 2007 8:26:39 AM
I like the idea of it, and yet the implementation is annoying. Too many accidental pop-ups as you move through posts.
Posted by: GregC | Jan 8, 2007 9:12:27 AM
Fred,
I thought it was cool initially, but the novelty wears after visiting a couple of sites. I think if used selectively it might be effective, but in place of regular links in content, it's pretty jarring.
Rahul
Posted by: Rahul Pathak | Jan 8, 2007 11:03:43 AM
I don't like it. I use a 17" monitor with a pretty nifty graphics card, and other then knowing what color the new webesite is going to be, I can not seem to get any valuable information out of it. So, it ends up being a large intrusive experience as I use my mouse wheel to scroll. It's not an annoyance, however, and it wouldn't keep me from visiting anyones site, but I also see little point for it also. In addition, I tend to open tabs in Firefox liberally. If something looks even slightly interesting, I'll open a tab.
Posted by: Jamie | Jan 8, 2007 11:44:54 AM
Fred et.al,
My name is Erik Wingren and I head up UX Research for Snap.com -- the company behind the Snap Preview Anywhere™ service.
First, I would like to thank you for sharing your feedback. Please rest assured that your viewpoints are informing the ongoing development of this product. And you should know that you are more than welcome to join the discussion about the Snap Preview Anywhere user experience on our blog.
Second, I wanted to let you know that we are working on an update to the code that will allow end-users greater control of the Snap Preview behavior.
These controls -- all available directly from the preview bubble -- include:
1. The delay before the previews appear.
2. The size of the preview graphic.
3. One-click opt-out.
The first phase -- with hover delay and opt-out -- is scheduled for release Thursday this week. Control of the preview size will follow one week later.
In the meantime, as readers of blogs that use Snap Previews, you certainly have the option of preventing them from ever appearing. The current version requires a couple of steps:
1. When the preview bubble appears...
2. Click the ?-icon in the upper right corner to go to the FAQ page...
3. Click the "Can I disable Snap Preview Anywhere?" link...
4. Click the opt-out link to set a cookie preventing the previews from appearing.
5. Repeat if you use more than one browser and/or if you blow out your cookies.
Finally, in addition to making it easier for end-users to opt-out, we are working double-time on enhancements to enable site owners greater control of the implementation on their sites.
I sincerely hope you will continue to share your feedback as this technology develops.
Cheers.
Erik Wingren | Snap UX Research
erik@snap.com | +1.323.528.0058
Posted by: Erik Wingren | Jan 8, 2007 12:34:56 PM
I like it today, and those updates sound neat. I also like the branding aspects of Snap. They might of not clicked on my link until they saw a snapshot and recognized my logo. Or they see it on 25 sites, and finally come to the site through repetition.
Posted by: eric hebert | Jan 8, 2007 2:27:27 PM
Not that I'm impartial, but I'd want the option for the blog owner to be able to re-author the widget using various bits of information that MyBlogLog is collecting on the blog owner's behalf.
Posted by: Scott Rafer | Jan 8, 2007 8:19:35 PM
AVC is unstable to use today. I don't know what is causing this as other blogs are not having these issues and yours is the only one using snap preview (which I hate). If I want to go there I will, I don't need a preview. It just gets in the way of the material of the blog I know I am interested in.
Posted by: jazzybc | Jan 8, 2007 9:58:27 PM
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