Solo Technology

What used to be called Snap Preview Anywhere is now known as Snap Shots.  You can see it in action here on any single article view page.  Any links that are offsite have a little “bubble” graphic; just hover over that graphic to get a preview of what the destination site looks like.

I first wrote about Snap Preview back in November.  They’ve come a long ways since then.  (I should add, if you hate ‘em, you can just click on the “Disable” link, top right corner of any preview)

With the product renaming comes new features.  Interesting features.  Different content may have different shots, or styles.  For instance, if the links is to a YouTube video, the preview shows just the video (playable!).   It also gives special treatment to Flickr photos, Amazon item listings, Wikipedia articles and more.  Very slick. More information at the Shots Central page.

If you run a WordPress blog, there’s a Snap Shot plugin that’ll help you easily add the functionality and customize it for your blog.  I’ve not tried it, but have heard good things about it.

Personally, I think this thing is pretty cool.  I really like the new features with the specialized shots.  Now that I’ve figured out how to control what links get a preview it doesn’t seem nearly as obnoxious as I initially found it.  And finally, I like that folks can very easily “opt out” and not deal with the previews if they don’t want.  Kind of the best of both worlds.

8 Responses to “Snap Shots”

1. Ajay on April 16th, 2007 8:51 pm
   

   Thanks for the review and the link.

   The plugin gives you complete customization without touching a line of code.

   All you need is the key and the plugin does the dirty work for you. You can also change the various settings easily.

2. Chris on April 16th, 2007 8:55 pm
   

   Hey Ajay, thanks for dropping by.

   The plugin gives you complete customization without touching a line of code.

   Hey, I like to touch code!
   But yep, that’s why I mentioned your plugin. Not everyone will have the patience to play with the various code options and class names.

3. Mark Robinson on April 17th, 2007 6:23 am
   

   These are definitely some improvements - I was getting close to disabling Snap Preview because it was a little annoying but these new features may save it.

4. Rich G. on April 17th, 2007 8:40 pm
   

   I disabled it ages ago because it was causing dial-up users problems.
   I’ll try new widget and see if it’s still an issue… I like the new features with flickr and youtube a lot.

5. Louisville Designer on April 19th, 2007 12:29 pm
   

   Why not just try it? It’s funny to write a post praising snap view and talking about the WP add on but not plug it in and see how it goes. Any reason not to? Was it the dial up thing?

6. Chris on April 19th, 2007 1:13 pm
   

   Howdy Louisville - I *am* running it here.
   Or were you responding to Rich?

7. Louisville on April 21st, 2007 8:22 pm
   

   I’m an idiot. I was reading your blog at work and either I didn’t notice the clouds allowing the preview, or else they were missing there somehow (lots of ads and stuff don’t load there). I then interpreted the “I’ve not tried it, but have heard good things about it” to mean that you hadn’t messed with it yet. Anyhow, sorry for the false accusation. (c:

8. Chris on April 21st, 2007 8:39 pm
   

   lol! To be fair (and honest), I could’ve been clearer in my article. I am using Snap Shots, but I am not using Ajay’s WordPress plugin. I just did it “by hand”, so to speak.

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