tag:www.readwriteweb.com,2011:/1/tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3644- 2011-04-29T12:28:20Z Comments for Snap Preview Anywhere Launches Localized Versions Movable Type 4.35-en tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3644 2007-03-27T10:15:48Z 2007-12-16T23:11:17Z Snap Preview Anywhere Launches Localized Versions Richard MacManus http://www.readwriteweb.com Later today Web previews product Snap is launching 8 new localized versions of their Snap Preview Anywhere product. They will support 9 languages in all:

  • English (by Default) 
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Chinese - Simplified 
  • Chinese - Traditional 
  • French 
  • German 
  • Spanish 
  • Portuguese

Web Previews - good or bad?

But whatever the language, it's up to end users the world over to decide if web previews are useful or an annoyance. Back in January Alex Iskold looked at several Web previews products, including Snap, Browster, Cooliris. Also in February I reviewed iReader, a browser extension that lets you preview the content of a link before you click on it. The general verdict for all these products was that they are potentially useful, but more often than not the implementation was an annoyance for the reader.

Since that time, Snap has released a number of upgrades to their Web previews product - specifically aimed at addressing those usability issues. Snap Preview Anywhere added a bubble icon, css themes, better and more granular control of the hover trigger, and a larger image size option. Also there is now an option to have just the icon as the preview trigger, which seems like an elegant way to let readers know that it's something in addition to a normal hyperlink - which they will soon realize is a web preview. This gets around the potential issue of people hovering their mouse cursor over links and getting unexpected preview pop-ups.

]]> As you may have noticed, I've implemented Snap Preview Anywhere onto the site. I've already found it useful to 'preview' the webpage links of the commenters on Read/WriteWeb. But let me know your feedback on it - particularly the usability aspects.

]]> tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3644-comment:30803 Comment from Anders P. on 2007-03-28 Anders P. Unnecessary clutter IMHO.

]]> 2007-03-28T07:57:48Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3644-comment:30802 Comment from sull on 2007-03-27 sull http://spreadthemedia.com i like the concept, but it always annoys me when i encounter them. not sure what that sais ;)

]]> 2007-03-28T03:02:49Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3644-comment:30801 Comment from Tim Whalen on 2007-03-27 Tim Whalen http://www.snap.com Marcin, in the options menu you can change your hover delay preference to get a longer delay before the bubble appears.

]]> 2007-03-27T16:17:05Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3644-comment:30800 Comment from Website Magazine on 2007-03-27 Website Magazine http://websitemagazine.com Snap's product is great but tools (IMHO) are definitely better in the browser. I use CoolIris - a Firefox addon.

]]> 2007-03-27T13:33:51Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3644-comment:30799 Comment from Seth Wagoner on 2007-03-27 Seth Wagoner http://interclue.com As you say, it's improved since they started putting the icons next to the links rather than activating on link hover. They were awfully annoying before that point.

I agree with Tim - best done in the browser.

]]> 2007-03-27T13:14:24Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3644-comment:30798 Comment from Tim from bla.st on 2007-03-27 Tim from bla.st http://bla.st/ Shouldn't web previews be built into browsers, not individual websites?

]]> 2007-03-27T11:10:48Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3644-comment:30797 Comment from Ali on 2007-03-27 Ali http://www.everybodygoto.com I'm not a huge fan of it, but I guess some people might find it useful.

]]> 2007-03-27T11:01:22Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3644-comment:30796 Comment from Marcin Brzezinski on 2007-03-27 Marcin Brzezinski http://www.reliablesystems.co.uk First! :-)

The previews are a great feature for people like me, with ADD :)

In the world of short attention span it's great to see the preview of what's below the URL without actually clicking on it.

As far as the usability goes, maybe some slight delay between the mouse hover and the popup showing might be useful?

]]> 2007-03-27T10:34:37Z