QUESTION: Your opinion on Snap Preview Anywhere…
Is Snap Preview Anywhere (and the usage of it on my site) totally annoying? I’ve been reading some bloggers’ articles about ‘how annoying and distracting’ they are and that you have to click on the link a bunch of times to actually get it to GO.
I thought it was a pretty cool idea when I saw it on another site, but if it’s pissing readers off, then it’ll just have to go. The writing takes priority (for me, anyway).
But I was never really that cool to begin with, so you never know… 
Please let me know - yea, nay, or meh! 
‘Yea’ = “For the love of God, PLEASE stop torturing us!”;
‘Nay’ = “I lurv it! Don’t take it away from meeeee!”; or
‘Meh’ = “Whatever. Doesn’t bother/affect me one way or another.”
ADDENDUM: ‘Hunh’ = “WTF are you talking about, crazy lady?!”
Thank you kindly in advance!
March 1st, 2007 at 6:04 am
Count me in for a big “Meh”
March 1st, 2007 at 6:41 am
Personally I’ve never been a fan, but it doesn’t dramatically alter my reading experience to the point that I’d stop and leave.
March 1st, 2007 at 7:24 am
Woah promptness! Heheh. Thanks!
~makes a tick~ …
~makes a dot~ …
~shakes the etch-a-sketch and makes an arthur and dwayne instead~!
March 1st, 2007 at 8:32 am
What about a “HM”? I used to have snap preview on my sites. I like them. My visitors didn’t like them though. And it was not just one voice. I guess that when you have ten different links in one article, the snap previews are annoying. So I’m in for a “HM” - translated “more or less”. I find them cool on a very clean page with not so many graphics. I agree that they are not cool on blogs that use many other widgets, ads, banners, pics, etc.
March 1st, 2007 at 2:06 pm
Recidiscursive et.al,
My name is Erik Wingren and I head up UX Research for Snap.com — the company behind the Snap Preview Anywhere (SPA) service. Needless to say I have a bias in the question you raise… but here goes:
1. Tech pundits who critique SPA on the basis of usefulness, either fail to think outside of their personal frame of reference or they are essentially expressing a lack of interest in the less tech savvy. More on this here.
2. Tech pundits who critique SPA on the basis of disruptive interaction HAD (past tense intentional) more of a case, and this is why we have released a number of ways for site owners such as yourself to enhance the implementation.
Cheers.
–
Erik Wingren
Snap UX Research
March 2nd, 2007 at 2:05 am
Erik,
Thank you for taking the time to inform me(/us)!
Your links were extremely helpful.
“The Snap Preview Anywhere service was designed to help users make more informed decisions about what links to click on and thereby help them navigate the Internet with greater speed and accuracy.”
SPA was one of the first things I added to this site as I fell in love with the Snap ‘M.O.’ instantly after having seen it on a site. I’ve personally never had any problems with it. I take great enjoyment out of seeing where I ‘could be’ going -before- I choose whether or not to visit, and I find there’s a kind of added interactive ‘flair’ and beauty to the previews, as many of the ones I link to from here are just absolutely gorgeous - from the SPA shot, this is always very evident.
I think the problem is that I made the quite false assumption that readers would also take to it as quickly as I did! (NOT that I have received complaints - I was just surprised and alarmed to see seemingly tech savvy people ‘trashing’ it, basically.
I’m glad SPA is being active in responding to these peoples’ comments, and to SPA users’ concerns.
Reader opinions I will definitely take into account, but since I pay to host this site and it’s mostly for my enjoyment/personal growth, my decisions regarding the use of any third-party plugins/etc. will have to be just that - my own!
I will, however, definitely have to take the time to follow-up with the implementation guidelines you provided in your second link!
Again, thank you kindly for your reply.
Peace,
~Ank/Recidiscursive
March 2nd, 2007 at 8:50 pm
I have some doubts on a conceptual level:
It looks like proposing tourists to evaluate a foreign country by looking to it from a SATELLITE!
The view is exciting, no question about it. But from information point of view it’s useless:
How you see it from the space has nothing to do with what you realy want to learn about it.
You can’t READ a word with SPA!
It shows nothing excepting the HTML design of a page!
Nevertheless, each innovation should have a chance.
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