I noticed Matt using Snap previews - pretty nice. I figured they’d be especially handy for my WordPress Themes page, as folks have asked for screenshots of the themes for a while now. I’ve implemented this on just my WordPress themes and styles pages for now.
The only drawback seems to be pretty slow server response time from the Snap servers - page load time seems to be rather badly impacted at times. I’ve mitigated this for now by serving a copy of the Snap JavaScript from my server. Also, I think it should be smart enough not to attach itself to .zip file URLs, etc. I dropped them a note on this.
What do you guys think - cool or annoying? Should this stay? On all pages or just on the themes and styles pages?
Popularity: 4% [?]
Andi adds this Comment:
I recently wrote a blog entry about various alternative thumbnail services which may provide better response times than the Snap service. Have a look at
http://www.splitbrai[...]e_thumbnails
November 24th, 2006 at 11:25 am
Geof F. Morris adds this Comment:
That’s pretty nifty. I guess it’s another way to do it other than the Theme Browser…
I’m not sure how much you’d use it site-wide, though.
November 25th, 2006 at 11:20 am
Alex adds this Comment:
I kinda liked it on the main site, but many of the links showed “preview being generated” for a while, somewhat limiting the benefits that it provided.
November 25th, 2006 at 12:05 pm
Kit adds this Comment:
I noticed this a few days ago and signed up for an account. However, I’m still not game to use it on my site, because of the delay.
November 25th, 2006 at 5:08 pm
Jason Fields adds this Comment:
Alex,
We have received your feedback (and others) and are working on a revision to the Snap Preview Anywhere script that recognizes external file types and either renders a screen w/ a message about the file (ex. This is a ZIP file) or allows you to play/unzip/save the file accordingly.
As far as the rendering of wordpress themes slowly… We have updated the script to automatically crawl/capture urls associated with the site & url entered when you sign up to get the script.
In order to make sure we crawl all the proper urls, make sure when you sign up that you enter the url to the specific page you will be using the script (if you are using it on all pages/home page, then proceed as normal on our sign up process).
Since you are only using it on your Wordpress Themes page, it may be a good idea to redo your signup with that page specifically so we will def crawl/capture all your Wordpress Themes for previewing.
Hope this helps!
Jason Fields
Product Evangelist, Emerging Technologies
www.Snap.com
……… Commented with a Nokia e61 ……….
November 25th, 2006 at 8:21 pm
Terry adds this Comment:
I found the snap thumbnails very annoying on Matts site. I really like the concept of them and your theme pages seems to be a great use for them but all over on all pages is too much. my 2 cents.
November 26th, 2006 at 6:22 am