Attention all Bloggers
by Joe Thorn ~ April 28th, 2007. Filed under: Misc, Web/Blogs.To all the bloggers out there who are using the SnapShots link preview feature on their blogs. We hate it. It makes looking through your blog less enjoyable. No, it’s worse than that - it annoys us. In fact, 10 out of 10 blog readers surveyed say the SnapShot feature discourages them from returning to a blog (I made that up). Don’t believe that most people find it annoying? If you use it, take a poll on your blog and ask. Or you can just do the right thing and disable the feature.








April 28th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
Those of us who use slow connections- such as Southern Seminary’s “broadband” hate it (ok, I’ve not asked anyone esle). But I share you hatred of it. For that reason I’ve never enabled it on my own blog.
April 28th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Well, Steve says to do whatever you say. I guess I’ll disable it just for you.
April 28th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
oh, and send me $50.
April 28th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Joe, you are a blogger of great courage. You speak the truth brother. Totally agree.
April 28th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
You’re absolutely right. I had it on my blog for about a week or so, but as I surfed around I realized how much I hated it on other blogs so I took it off.
April 28th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
Well said Joe. The feature is quite cute … for a few mins, but then it gets annoying!
April 28th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
[...] Joe Thorn says that you guys hate SnapShots (those preview bubbles that pop up when you hover your cursor over a link). Steve McCoy agrees. [...]
April 28th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
I didn’t know I could disable the feature. Thanks for letting me know. I didn’t like it either.
April 28th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
Hey Joe, you probably never read my blog, but I never thought about the snapshot deal one way or the other, so just to appease you, I will turn it off. Thanks for letting me know.
April 28th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
Joe, are you try to start something here? I guess you are rather trying to end it. In any case, I join you in your crusade. All you need now is to make t-shirts and sell those rubber wristbands that everyone wears these days.
April 28th, 2007 at 7:11 pm
While we’re on the subject:
Flash menus are also annoying. If the connection speed isn’t good or if the mouse your using is a little quirky, it’s next to impossible to navigate a Flash menu. I do understand why they are used, but when possible they should be avoided, IMO.
April 28th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
Count me among the 10 out of 10 that hate it.
April 28th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
I had been thinking about getting it at one point, but you’re right it’s annoying. Everyone should follow your advice.
April 28th, 2007 at 10:17 pm
You can turn that thing off???? There goes the rest of my weekend. Now I gotta find the control that gets rid of it. I thought it was permanent.
April 28th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
Stephen,
Go to the “presentation” tab of your admin page and click on the sub-tab for “extras.” There you can unclick the “feature.”
Note: This is for Wordpress users. I don’t know it works for other formats.
April 29th, 2007 at 8:07 am
Agreed! It’s too small to read, so what’s the point? If I want to see the page a link goes to, I *click the link*!
April 29th, 2007 at 9:01 am
Who visits blogs? Isn’t that what RSS feeds are for?
April 29th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Oh, I forgot to add: I agree entirely about Snapshots.
April 29th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
Sorry Joe. My last 50 fell out of my paper wallet, because I never laminated it.
April 29th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
LOL - Dan, that’s funny man!
April 29th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
Enjoy your trip.. The right guys are going.
April 29th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
Amen!
April 30th, 2007 at 9:25 am
I am with you on this one Joe. Everyone please disable this feature.
April 30th, 2007 at 11:16 am
Thank God someone finally wrote out how to disable that thing. It just showed up a while back and I couldn’t figure out how to get rid of it. Thanks guys!
Josh
“…the word of God is not bound.”
–2 Timothy 2:9
April 30th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Joe et.al,
My name is Erik Wingren and I head up UX Research for Snap.com — the company behind the Snap Shots™ web service — and, for what it’s worth, I wanted to share my 2 cents on this topic.
In summary: Usefulness is a subjective measure, highly impacted by the context in which a functionality is used as well as the behavior and experience of the individual user. A discussion on Snap Shots (formerly known as Snap Preview Anywhere) and the user profile of YOUR audience can be found here.
And if you, or your readers, want a more in-depth perspective on the Snap Shots, I posted a write-up on the Snap Blog titled The Snap Preview Anywhere Use Case back in Feb.
That being said: Whether you are like Snap Shots or not, I truly appreciate you willingness to share your experiences of the product.
Cheers.
–
Erik Wingren
Snap UX Research
erik[@]snap[.]com
May 1st, 2007 at 11:46 am
Brister-
Did I understand you to say, “Click on the ‘predestination’ tab”?
May 2nd, 2007 at 11:29 am
[...] 2nd, 2007 · No Comments Rather than clutter up Joe Thorn’s excellent blog with my nasty comments I’ll just post them here regarding this Snap thing that [...]
May 2nd, 2007 at 11:48 am
Oh snap, Joe, you got the snap guys on your blog.
You really are trying to start something . . .
Marty,
It was the “procrastination” tab. I waited too long to unclick. Joe had to kick my butt.
Because he was chosen to.
May 2nd, 2007 at 3:28 pm
“It’s your destiny…”
Is that a lightsaber hum I hear?
May 3rd, 2007 at 9:08 am
Thank you thank you thank you! Those little pop ups make me scream.
May 5th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
Marty you wrote, “Click on the ‘predestination’ tab”?
Of course it is the ‘predestination’ tab! How could it be anything else?