performancing.com — Snap's preview anywhere gizmo is ruining the reading experience for millions of people. Its intrusive, obstructive and unuseful in almost every respect and use case. The fact that so many big blogs are using it, big well respected blogs, does not mean that it's useful, it just means that they, like most bloggers, have all the self restraint of a...
Jan 30, 2007 View in Crawl 4
Closed AccountJan 31, 2007
When I first saw this feature on Ask.com, I thought it was a great idea. Until I used it.Between mouseover and pop-up, there is a 5-10 second lag which is simply infuriating. If I can click the link, look at it, and go back, all in less time than it takes for the preview to load, it is a waste of time.
mikepanicJan 31, 2007
I have a snap preview on one of my blogs but it is only actuve for teh RSS icon in the top right corner of the page. A lot of people still don't know what that is for and the day after I installed it 30 people picked up the feed.
engtechJan 31, 2007
I can't believe they're trying to build a company around something like this.(ok, their bread and butter is image search... but who knows them as anything but the annoying snap preview guys?)
peterbeJan 31, 2007
I too think they're annoying. It would have been different if it was hyperlinks to images that you got previews of.
jasonatsnapJan 31, 2007
Hello Diggers,My name is Jason Fields, I am Product Evangelist for Emerging Technology for Snap.com and Snap Preview Anywhere (aka SPA) blog widget. I wanted to address some of the fodder that has been circulating in the blogosphere and now Digg about the usefulness of our product.In a nutshell, our product is intended to enable users to '"look before leaping", saving many people a wasted click. I will however be the first to admit that this is a product that some people don’t like, and this is why we have made sure to include a simple method to opt-out for those who don’t like it.While there are certainly others who agree with some of the comments here, there are literally thousands of people signing up for SPA every day AND we have served more than 100+ million previews since the launch of the product – and all of this for free. We are improving SPA almost every week with features aimed at giving site owners and end-users greater control in how to implement (and indeed "if" to implement) and interact with SPA. In the weeks to come, we will be: (1) Making improvements that will reduce the confusion about whether a link is SPA enabled, or not.(2) Make it much easier for a site owner to point SPA to a particular type of link.(3) Allow the site owner to totally customize a link, image, css, etc. We here at Snap are acutely aware of the issues described in these comments and we have several enhancements scheduled to release over the coming couple of weeks that, in different ways, will address them. Rest assured that your viewpoints have been informing, and will continue to inform, the ongoing development of this product.Thanks for your time and attention.Jason FieldsProduct Evangelist, Emerging Technologywww.Snap.com
componentFeb 1, 2007
I had it installed for 1 hour :-) actually, i'd like to swipe the code for a site I'm building. Anyone know of an easy drag/drop or a WP plugin that does the same thing? I know it's javascript. Oh -- and I'm still cracking-up on the "Oh Snap!" comment directly above. {it forces an image of Biz Markie in the Beethoven wig.}
mikeeastFeb 2, 2007
Finally we can vote to determine what the world thinks about this thing:<a class="user" href="http://www.digg.com/design/Do_you_like_Snap_Preview_Anywhere">http://www.digg.com/design/Do_you_like_Snap_Preview_Anywhere</a>
goinhomeFeb 19, 2007
It's my blog and I'll do what I want to, do what I want to, do what I want to. You can do it too if it happens to you.If you don't like a blog because of Snap usage, move on. Yes, it may be a flash-in-the-pan, but some feel that it's gotta be used to see how it works. And, it takes time to figure readership preference. The majority of comments here have only convinced me that people who have a gripe are those who fill out survey forms as well. Like me. Here. Now.