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It is Real Class when a Blog always Thanks it’s Readers 
Snap Previews are a real asset for adding that shot of Adrenalin to a Web Design.
Compete & MyBlogLog have been informative and quite useful services since their debut.
Yeah, well, we love our readers. They make fun of us, and then click on the ads.
Compete.com rules. They made a techcrunch bobblehead. http://static.f...e0382a8.jpg?v=0
I’m also interested in hearing how people feel about the Snap previews feature. I added the feature to my blog recently — and then removed it a couple days later, fearing that it was more annoying than useful (and after having received a thumbs down from the one reader who commented on them).
It’s not that the feature isn’t pretty — to the contrary, I like the overall aesthetic — but I felt that the thumbnails are too small to provide useful info. And yet even those tiny thumbnails are big enough to obscure a significant portion of the text, to the point where I sometimes had to make a conscious effort to avoid hovering over links while I read (especially in link-heavy posts).
All of that said, I haven’t completely soured on the concept. I’d be interested to know if any Snap users out there noticed changes to visitor click trends since implementing the feature. If Snap inspires visitors, for instance, to explore more deeply and click more frequently (either within my site, or to the content I feature), I’d be very tempted to bring it back. If it’s more about style than substance, though, I don’t think it justifies the added clutter. Any thoughts?
(Incidentally, I’m very impressed with the design of Snap’s own search engine, and the preview functionality there is eye-poppingly awesome. They have a ways to go in elevating their search algorithms to the level of their hot look, but for a new player in an extremely competitive field, they’re doing a lot of stuff right.)
“You can even use it for a full system restore.”
Just want to clarify on this point about Carbonite… True, you can back up as much data as you want, but “full system restore” implies that if your computer crashes, there’s a way to restore it to another computer with programs and everything.
As far as I can tell, the product is for data only. There’s no way to backup an installed program, for example, and then restore it to another computer so that the program runs in Windows just like it did on the old computer. A more likely scenario: your computer crashes, you first have to install to the new computer the programs you were using (from original CDs), and then you restore the data files from your Carbonite backup.
If I’m missing out on some new feature, I’d love to know about it (in fact, I think a true “full system restore” is really the next big leap for online backups).
hum – interesting note… appears odesk left and came back… because in the post last month, no mention is made about them being an advertiser…
http://www.tech...es-lowers-fees/
and now they are back – so is it – advertise, then stop so you can get a nice writeup, then come back??
things that make you go hmm…
The Snap integration is pretty nice, I’m thinking about using it as well.
Hello from Snap!
I wanted to mention a couple of things about Snap Preview Anywhere that may shed some added light on the product and our goals for its use on sites and blogs.
First off, its true that it’s not a product for everyone, some people love it and some don’t. I would be curious to see what people suggest in regards to making it seem less ‘annoying’ as some have mentioned.
Also, the most critical point that I want people to take away from the Snap Preview Anywhere product is that it provides a visual scent to any ’standard’ hyperlink. Hyperlinks are basically a frosted glass door, you think you know what’s behind it, but in essence you really do not (unless its an obvious link to a known site). This product redefines the way people interact with links in a visual manner (by using our vast library of site preview images).
What this product has shown us in the short time since launch is that it DOES provide a more informative and ’sticky’ experience for users by making their clicks MORE qualified and allowing them more time to evaluate the links they may have otherwise blindly clicked. The other beauty of this product is the fact you may suffer less from link A.D.D. (when you click a link to a site, spend some time there, forget what you were looking for, click on a link on that site, and so on). Thus being directed totally off track from the original link intention.
I welcome TechCrunch readers’ feedback on the product, as I want this to be as useful and ‘utility’ a tool as I can. I personally think its the next step in making hyperlinks even more useful to people online.
Thanks again for your interest in commenting on Snap Preview Anywhere here at TechCrunch and the detailed and informative feedback!
Jason Fields
Product Evangelist, Emerging Technologies
http://www.Snap.com
I really dislike the Snap previews. In terms of “getting in the way of reading,” they are just as bad as the “intelliTXT” ads that appear when you hover over words on certain websites.
The reason I dislike them is because I am a person who likes to highlight text with my mouse as I read it (or sometimes, just move the cursor over the text as I read). This makes it easier to pick up where you left off if I’m interrupted for some reason. But when reading your site, I often end up accidentally clicking the Snap window when I’m clicking the text to highlight, and this is really frustrating.
If the Snap window appeared in the *margin*, instead of directly over the text I’m reading, it would be much less annoying, in my opinion.
Also, in most cases, being able to see a thumbnail-sized preview of a website provides almost no useful info. Hovering over most of the links on TechCrunch either show a picture of a site’s homepage (which is often already displayed in the article itself) or a picture of an article in which nothing is actually readable. How is a picture of an article useful?
I think that it would be a useful feature if Snap would determine whether or not the primary reason for visiting a page is to read something,or to view a picture. If it’s to read something, it should show preview *text*, not a thumbnail. If the purpose of the page to view a picture, then show a thumbnail. For example, the Snap window for the bobblehead link above is very useful, because it is appropriate to retrieve a thumbnail in this case.
Yes, all good points but I’m suffering in silence.
I’ve got chronic tinea. And it’s itchy! It started in my toes, but didn’t waste any time making its way to my crotch.
Bugger, sometimes it’s tough being a Kiwi!
I love the new implementation of snap in this blog. It is COOL.
you spelled “the” wrong you have “teh”
I also dislike ‘SNAP’ because it irritates as one can just click on the link to find out more.
For people who have dial-up connection with slow speeds or are downloading something it unecessary slows down speed as it fetches its own data.
Hovering mouse over a text unecessary pops out a window and a person can’t read the text but he has to take care to avoid the mouse. It irritates.
Just like Intellitext which also irritates.
Techcrunch shouldn’t have this feature & remove it or just conduct a survey wth unique IP addresses to find what users want.
I think snap would be better if it would only popup after a set amount of time (i.e. 1 second or better set by the user). Then it would stop poping up at random and would only be used if the user wanted to see the site first.
To me — Snap is annoying. It takes as long for the snap preview to fully load on the existing screen as it takes to open the link in a new tab and glance at it. (I have high speed connection.) Within two days, it has developed such a strong rejection in me that it made me not want to roll over links at all; this, in turn, is reducing my experience, value, and satisfaction from otherwise great TechCrunch.
It seems, from comments above, some find it useful.
If that is the case, maybe a solution would be —
for Snap to build-in some mechanism where they give each user a choice to have it or not. Once I indicated I do not want it, please remember me. Be it a cookie or IP based or some else, as long as it is an individual approach.
That way, Snap can concentrate on those who like/love it and do not get distracted by those who will keep bitching about it until they are heard.
Thanks for letting us express how we feel.
yeah, thank you sponsors for making a few nerds a lot of money…. accolades…smiles..
I think snap is great ! with few more enhancements it will be killer app.
looks like a very resourcefull stuff