Are Web Page Link Previews Here to Stay?
According to , the first company to produce programming to preview web pages is , but there are many others battling for popularity on the web.I recently made my opinion very clear that exceptionally annoying on web pages.
After explaining why I find it frustrating when encountered, I also gave some thought as to the value of such a gimmick. Read/Write Web explained it beautifully:
The basic idea behind previews is simple: they save you a click. Instead of clicking on a link to see the content, you can get a preview of the page using a gesture - typically a mouseover.
Assuming you can decide if the page is interesting or not based on the preview, you can save a click and more importantly the page load.
The presumption is that a thumbnail will give you enough information to know if the site is worth visiting. My point was pretty is not proof of content.
So the best use of such gimmicks is for showcase, portfolio or graphic sites which review website designs, WordPress Themes, or similar graphic subject matter. In that specific case use, the thumbnail glimpse of the web page will definitely influence our decision to click.
That s useful.
This does, however, cover most of your screen (for small screens), but you make a choice to do so.
Still, I like the idea of not having the preview imposed upon me and allow me to control its actions.
on their blogs by default. You can turn it off from within your Presentation Extras panel.
And I ve heard from a lot of people that they are visiting the Snap site to register to have it turned off for them for good, which also makes me very wary and suspicious. What are they going to do with all that traffic and registration information? Hmmm?
Remember, these companies are out to make money on their products. We may install them for free because they are neat gimmicks, but they want the loot. The cost to losing or frustrating our audience with these gimmicks might be too high.
If you use them right on your site, then they have value, but these are not for everyone.
What do you think?
Posted January 18, 2007 at 5:48 am It s funny, the other day.
I can t stand them and generally encourage others not to use them.
Of course, you can also do this by hovering over a snap enabled link and press options in the preview popup.
Posted January 18, 2007 at 1:49 pm One significant problem with the snappie is that it completely obscures the very thing I m trying to read, while it fetches the new webpage.
This may not be a problem for those on high-speed broad-band or who read very, very slowly.
I hover over links to see the URL (where do they lead, domain and rough quality of website, etc.) and if I want to view them.
The previews don t allow this very simple and quick tool.
Posted January 18, 2007 at 5:15 pm Thanks for blogging on previews and mentioning Cooliris.
Cooliris previews does not occupy the entire page.
Instead, Cooliris opens a preview window that is large enough so that you can see the actual content, but small enough so that it does not cover up the hyperlinks on your original page, i.e. Google search result page.
Cooliris allows web surfers to quickly run through search engine results, Ebay, Craigslist, webmail (such as Yahoo!, sorry no gmail yet), discussion forums, etc. It s a free add-on for the browser (client-side), rather than server-side.
Posted January 18, 2007 at 5:29 pm Thanks for the info. The amount of the screen covered by triggering Cooliris is dependent upon your screen size and resolution. On my testing, it covered most of the screen.
Larger screens, less coverage.
Still, it s a neat idea and best because the user controls the preview and it isn t forced upon them like Snap and other web page previews.
Posted January 18, 2007 at 6:49 pm Hey,
A friend of mine suggested a intermediate solution for the Snap Problem , which I thought was interesting (you can find it here: - in spanish).
One could code snap in a way that some links have a little square next to them. So if one wants a preview of the page, one can (as with coliris) ask for the preview, instead of getting it just by hovering over the link with the mouse.
Cheers.
Posted January 18, 2007 at 6:54 pm What is entirely more useful is if the person who posted the link put a description of it in the field so that when you hover you get their comment on the link. 
What would be a little bit useful is a preview widget that got the title of the page when you hovered. The screenshots are useless though.
Posted January 18, 2007 at 7:58 pm My name is Erik Wingren and I head up User Experience Research for Snap.com — the company behind the Snap Preview Anywhere service.
I need to clarify one thing: There is no need what so ever to visit Snap.
com and register in order to disable the previews from appearing.
The opt-out control used to live on the FAQ-page on the Snap.com web site but registration has never been required.
As of last week, prior to the full Wordpress.com roll-out and in response to feedback from bloggers all over the web, the opt-out control was moved inside the preview bubble.
End-users that want it gone can simply click Options in the upper-right corner of the preview bubble and opt-out to prevent the previews from appearing.
Going forward, I would be happy to assist you with fact-checking for anything relating to Snap.com or Snap Preview Anywhere.
Let me assure you that we have no interest in forcing functionality on users or somehow preventing them from opting-out.
On the contrary the product design process at Snap.com is very much centered around an active dialogue with user regarding their experience.
And in line with that, for what it is worth — Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Your viewpoints are informing the continued development of this product.
Posted January 18, 2007 at 10:02 pm Sorry for that previous empty comment - my keyboard does weird things.
Remember, these companies are out to make money on their products.
We may install them for free because they are neat gimmicks, but they want the loot. The cost to losing or frustrating our audience with these gimmicks might be too high. If you use them “right” on your site, then they have value, but these are not for everyone.
How do the companies that provide the so-called gimmicks make money? I don t see ads anywhere. Sometimes I wonder what the point of making something that is free without any ads.
I m not so sure the cute little Paypal Donate buttons go so far (forget open-source projects and blogs here - I mean real useful sites),
Posted January 18, 2007 at 11:01 pm Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I had not realized that companies are out to make money! How did I miss that?
You know, I am now suspecting that those guys running television actually might be giving that away because there are those advertisements during the program.
Also, thanks for pointing out all the nonsense about pictures. I have been really irritated by those things all over the place.
I even wish the manufacturers of products would not put those gimmicks on the boxes. I mean, if Whole Foods thought the cereal was good enough to stock (I totally trust Whole Foods) why should I need a dumb picture? Now that I am an experienced eater, you see I have been doing that for years, I really don t need the distraction and I can just read the contents and obviously determine the toasted oats from the bran flakes.
Only the most initiated would need such fluff between me and the content.
Remarkable, insightful, hard hitting!
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