Add some Snap to your Blog!

Ok, I’ve given in to popular demand and I’m experimenting with the Snap service. I figure if TechCrunch can use it then maybe I should give it a try.

It’s a little like the alt and title attributes on steroids. I originally poo-pooed on using it earlier in its development for a couple of reasons:

1. I thought the images were too small to be of any use, BUT is it my imagination or are they larger than the first time I checked it out? Maybe it’s time to get those new glasses that I’ve been promising myself;

2. It’s another script on my blog that could negatively impact performance.

3. I also thought it was annoying that it popped up every time I accidentally hovered my mouse over a link. But now I notice they have a delay option to prevent that from happening so it is no longer a problem.

Coincidentally I noticed today that one of my fav curmudgeons Dave Winer (aka Uncle Davey doesn’t like Snap either. He opines:

“And these little widgets ought to give users a way to opt out.”

I completely understand Dave, but did you know that you can change the options (at the top right-hand corner) to set the delay for up to a second. That should be long enough to disable any inadvertent mouseovers. And yes, there is also the option to opt-out for all sites or just the site that you are currently reading. Cool.

On the more positive side, installation was a snap (no pun intended) just pasting a small script into the template. And besides the obvious benefit for users to preview a link before clicking, it also gives the blog a dynamic feel to it which isn’t a bad thing I suppose.

So we’ll just wait and see how it works. If anyone likes it (or doesn’t like it) please let me know. Oh yes, Ajay also has a nice tutorial on a plugin that he created for Wordpress users.