As it is now, I don’t find it useful — I find it annoying and disgracefully out-of-date. (I cast my vote, too.) Thanks for the opportunity.

http://www.digg.com/design/Do_you_like_Snap_Preview_Anywhere

If I could add my site to snaps list of sites easily, and specify data that I thought was relevant, I’d be happy.

In terms of the way it’s displayed, I’d like it to only display links to sites of those publishers who have opted in. It could then display my pre-determined description, a link to my rss feed, my alexa rank, number of subscribers to my feed etc. In other words, information that is actually useful to a potential visitor.

I’d also do away with the pop-ups. I think it would be better to add an icon next to “snap-ified” links that would give the user the option to interact with it.

My two cents…

I do find website preview popups, in a number of instances, to be more compact (as in, they don’t pop up without context: I must mouse over a link) than inline images. But an interesting connection to what Yehuda points out; I’m a tabbed browsing enthusiast but have watched many a computer user be confused by juggling between them. Maybe there’s a better UI solution (and for context, I prefer my tabs served vertically, a la Widerfox).

Content tends to be very difficult to read at those small preview window sizes; chances are the text is unreadable! But for something like a picture, a thumbnail can be a very valuable look-ahead.

That being said, I wonder who’s already implemented easy Snap toggle buttons on their blog? (Not dissimilar from those plugins that allow you to change between themes, or languages.)

But Jason wrote:

In a nutshell, our product is intended to enable users to “look before leaping”, saving many people a wasted click.

Which is essentially not true. Their FAQ reads:

What are the benefits of link previews?
Previews give site visitors the ability to ‘look before they leap’ when determining whether or not to click on a link.

What does that mean for site owners?
Previews help you, the site owner, keep the user on your site instead of losing them to the site behind the hyperlink (increases relevant, on-site page views).

The first would be the case if the popup were to happen after hovering for a few moments (more than 2 seconds), or as a result of a right-click or shift-click. But the damn thing pops up even when your pointer moves over the link without even stopping.

Furthermore, the popup blocks the site you’re viewing at that moment. Is Jason trying to imply that someone looking at a page is more likely to want to view a tiny unreadable version of some other page rather than the page he or she is looking at?

Furthermore, the previewing ability obstructs the link itself, making it difficult to click, and is startling and bandwidth consuming, especially if you weren’t expecting it.

Furthermore, the previewing functionality is indiscriminate. Every single link on the page gets this preview, and not the key ones that might actually deserve it. Do I really need a preview of the link to “comments for this post”, “trackbacks for this post”, and “permanent link to this post”? That’s ridiculous.

I don’t know how the system is set up, but it should be enabled on links one by one, not for an entire page.

Furthermore, what problem were they really trying to solve? How many people do you know thought to themselves, “Gosh, I waste so much time clicking through to other sites and then having to backtrack?”

The solution to this is browser tabs which open in the background. These allow you to open a link without disturbing your reading and without leaving the page. If I have tabbed browsing, why on Earth would I need this?

The real answer is the second, which is that someone thought this would be a good way to retain people on the site. And it’s flashy. As they say a little later in their FAQ: “Besides, Snap Preview Anywhere is cool!”

It is designed to serve the interests of the blogger, not the reader. It is definitely not cool. It’s a popup which is even more annoying because they are all over the page.

It doesn’t solve anyones problems. It’s a bad idea.

Use the technology for something useful, like adding clearly marked links next to content for definitions or further information or something.

Yehuda

My view on it is as i stated: Great, but popups are annoying.

Yes, their product is annoying for some (most) of us.

However, some people do like the feature, they do make it easy to turn them off, and they are very responsive to criticism and feature requests to make the tool more user-friendly and publisher-friendly.

That being said, I set the cookie and never see them.

Nick, I just read your original post and fully agree. It’s a popular waste of space.