AnswerTips?

I've had answertips on this blog for just over a week now.

The initial reaction was pretty good. But I've heard a bunch of comments like this recently:

Fred, I was selecting text in the comment editor to make changes and the answers.com window kept popping up. I didn't enjoy the experience.

I need to hear from all of you. How many of you have been frustrated leaving a comment on this blog by answertips? How many of you have found value out of it? Please leave me your answers in the comments.

Comments

[Michael Hoffman]

If you could disable it only in the comments I think it is worth keeping, but I have had that happen also and it's a pain.

[Jamie]

I haven't noticed that problem yet. When you first put up answertips I thought it was pretty cool. But, I must confess, I haven't actually used it. I spend time every day on wikipedia and maybe that is why I don't use it; I have a habit of using that source. Anyway, it's like that new shiny at Christmas. I don't want to part with the shiny, but I also know I am probably never going to use it.

[Rahul Pathak]

AnswerTips is interesting for the first few uses as a novelty, but that quickly wears off. I'd find it much more usable if it were in my context menu so I could control it, but that would require me to install it which isn't going to work.

The notion of a contextual browser helper is interesting on the surface, but I think it's incredibly hard to execute well.

Also, the Snap preview thing is still horrendous. Thanks for taking that down.

Finally, awesome blog, Fred. Thank you.

Rahul

[Rick]

I love bling but AnswerTips is like the sound of fingernails on a blackboard.

[Erik Schwartz]

I like it. I'd like it better if it were built as a browser tool like adaptive blue. That would also allow me to customize how it appears (double click, triple click, option click, whatever)

The pain it solves is cutting and pasting a word I want a definition for into the browser google search box. That's a browser level issue not a site level issue.

Not quite sure how anyone makes any money with this...

[Dick Costolo]

The answertips popup while i was typing a comment did cause me to stop leaving a comment last time because i couldn't stop it from happening over and over, so i just abandoned ship. Probably for the best since it was a stupid comment. Agree with michael that it's neat if you could disable it within forms.

[John]

I love it. I think an important thing to note is it is much more convenient than cutting and pasting into a Google search box. When you double-click you get the information instantly and without leaving the blog. Also, an important thing to note is when you cut and paste into the Google search box what do you get? You get a links which you have to weed through to find the information you are looking for. Granted you are not sure if you are going to get exactly what you are looking for when you double click but what did you lose?

I hope you keep it. I really like it. Anyone who does not like it does not have to use it.

[Mehul Patel]

That was nice, fun and a lot of work for all 4 of u....I prefer Nokia E 62.....

[charlie crystle]

I double-click everything by habit--just whitespace. And that sucks with answertips.

It should be a client technology, not a site tech. Don't give the user tools they don't want to use--make it optional.

[Teddy]

I'm not a fan. I think you should get rid of it. It's annoying and not that useful. In my opinion, a box on the side to look up words is better then this.

[Nathaniel McNamara]

Fred, I have the habit of highlighting text when I read, so on more than one occassion I had the answer tips come up when I wasn't expecting it. That being said, the underlying service is pretty interesting, so perhaps I can change my ways or, better yet, they can change the way it pops up.

[AdamD]

I also have the highlighting and double-clicking habits. The AnswerTips have come up when I haven't wanted them and I haven't found myself wanting them, either.

[Derek]

Gnosis is more like what I had in mind when I commented on the original Answer Tips post a couple of weeks ago.

http://sws.clearforest.com/Blog/?page_id=32

I think this kind of thing works best at the plugin level as it leaves the user in ultimate control.

[ebrescia]

I haven't had any problems with it. The one time I used it (moused over something I wanted to learn more about,) it worked like a charm.

[Doug]

I think it's pretty cool!! - particularly so on articles of a more technical nature or targeted to a specific subject area where my knowledge may not be strong. It sure is easier than leaving the page and doing a google search. I would love to know what percentage of people are lost to those types of distractions?

[Mike]

I don't like it anywhere on the page.

[Barry Welford]

I find it works exactly as it says on the box. I haven't been able to duplicate the problem that is mentioned here so I'm not sure what those with problems are doing. I find it excellent.

[Teddy]

Revising my earlier comment, I believe this is the kind of thing a user should be able to decide on. That's why Answers has a great browser extension.

[Matthew]

I really like it. It provides great information and is transparent until the user actively requests it. Surprised they don't charge for it. I guess they get branding out of it.