Preview Images of Link Destinations with Snap
January 17th, 2007 | Posted in blog 6 Comments »
Snap is a really interesting new feature that allows you to see an image of a link’s destination just by moving your mouse over the link.
I added Snap to this site and to my podcast site. (Adding Snap takes about 30 seconds, that’s all.) The following image shows Snap in action.
Some think this preview is annoying, and others are really intrigued by it. I think it adds interactivity to your site and allows the reader to make smarter decisions about the links he or she clicks.
We all know that readers spend about 10 seconds or less on a page before clicking a link. But how do they know that they link they click is worthwhile? Snap takes some suspense and mystery out of that click and helps the reader make more informed choices. This preview feature may make the nonlinear, random experience of the web less of a headache.
If that were all Snap did, it would be cool enough. But they also apply the technology to search results. Rather than clicking each link of your search results and visiting the page, you can preview the page immediately without leaving the search results. The Snap preview might prove to be quite a time saver when sifting through the returns.
To search with Snap, just, go to http://snap.com.
You can also add Snap as a toolbar to Firefox.
Lorelle is one of the main objectors to Snap. She writes,
Think this gimmick through, folks. Do you really need this bell and whistle on your blog? It’s a nice gimmick, but if you have given people enough information about the link you are offering, isn’t that enough? Do they really need to see a tiny thumbnail view of the page they might visit? You can’t read the text, so what will a little picture tell you? It’s a pretty site, so make sure and visit it? Some of the most valuable sites I’ve found on the web are not pretty.
She’s adamantly against Snap. I wasn’t fully convinced by her anti-Snap post, though. What do you think?
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[...] A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that Rhonda snapped. Now Tom snaps. I’m talking about Snap, which does seem to be a very cool plug-in to WordPress and other blogging tools. When your cursor hovers over a hyperlink, a square cartoon-bubble-like pop-up appears with a miniature version of the site or Web page referred to by the link. I like it. It has a high cool factor, and Tom provides a few thoughts about it on his blog. But is it accessible? How does it work in a screen reader? How does it work with slow connections? (56k modems still exist!) That I haven’t quite figured out yet. Do you know? [...]
Hi Tom,
I notice you removed Snap Previews from your template a few weeks ago and wonder whether you’ll share your reason for doing so. I see you still enjoy embedding hyperlinks in your content, and if ever there were a reason to use Snap Previews that’d be it.
I still have Snap implemented on my blog but my visitors have not commented on it either way so I don’t know whether it’s neglected, appreciated, or despised.
I took advantage of a couple of related conversations on Digg to ask whether people liked my implementation and the only replies I got were negative. I don’t consider this to be an accurate representation of my readers but it’s a little alarming nonetheless.
I’d be very interested to hear how you came to decide to omit this unique functionality.
On my Twenty Usability Tips for Your Blog post, one of the commenters said,
I also found a link on Darren Rowse’s blog indicating that he’d surveyed his readers and found they disliked the Snap Preview.
Also, one reason I chose this theme was for the wide text area. I like to put screenshots in some of my posts, and particularly with that 20 Usability Tips post, I could see how the constant screenshots with the snap preview “snapping” all the time could be annoying.
I’ve started to put text in the Title field of the hyperlink dialog box instead.
Personally, I think the Snap Preview is one of those gadgets that seems cool but actually doesn’t add much value to a blog. I know I advocated for it earlier and even think I encouraged others to use it. I don’t feel strongly against it now — I just am not totally convinced enough to use it.
By the way, I read your post about the new Google Analytics enhancements and used it for some of the news on the latest Tech Writer Voices podcast.
I agree that Google Analytics’ new graphics are a level above their previous metrics graphs. I’ve noticed that Site Meter says I have a lot more hits than Google Analytics.
Speaking of Google, they recently acquired Feedburner — that’s pretty cool.
I had to think about it for about a week but I agree with you. Snap Previews is a very unique and exciting technology, but it kind of misses the target when it comes to adding value to a blog.
I believe I will adopt your methodology of using ALT text to label hyperlinks instead. Snap shows an illegible graphical overview of a linked page, whereas ALT text can be tailored by content authors to tell their audience WHY a hyperlink is relevant in context.
I guess sometimes a word is worth a thousand pictures.
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