Oh, Snap

I recently came upon the extreme niftiness of Snap Preview at the blog TechCrunch, but (while I found it extremely nifty) wasn't immediately convinced of its utility.  However, after hearing from one of my readers that he frequently mouses over the more frivolous, alluding links in my posts and is able to "get the idea" by seeing the linked URL without actually clicking through, I set to pondering.

As I frequently do likewise when reading posts by other bloggers given to frivolous allusions, and taking this sample population of two to be more instructive than it probably is, I reasoned that the added nicety of the Snap Preview might indeed be a worthy site addition.

So consider this site hereby snapped.  From now on, when you mouse over a link, a thumbnail preview of the linked page will pop up.  This admittedly adds minimal value for linked articles or other reading-intensive errands I might send you on, but for the occasional throwaway pop culture reference, it may just enable you to conserve valuable browsing energy.  Gumby himself would approve.

As for linked articles, in consideration of the truly clickthrough-averse, if you squint, you can generally at least make out the headline, which ought to sate your very mild curiosity.

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Update:   A helpful Snap.com employee e-mails to note the procedure for opting out of the preview bubbles.  To turn them off:

1.  Click the “Options” link in the upper right corner of the preview bubble.
2.  Disable (for this site or globally).
3.  Close the bubble and reload.