July 11th, 2008

The latest release brings with it a massive amount of improvements.  We could talk about general nitty-gritty, but let’s not.  Lets get to the heart of some of the more significant changes.

The Menu & Embedded Objects

• A NEW LOOK!  (We’d post a screenshot, but thought better of it this time: just give one of the buttons a try!)
• Embedded objects are only hidden when they intersect with the drop-down (or “jump-up”, depending on orientation!)
  • Whether you revere or abhor this functionality, it’s configurable, it’s up to you

The Finder (“Find service(s)…”)

• Retains user queries after they’ve clicked out of the find box, allowing instant modifications to the displayed services
• As power users know, when the menu is open, they can just type to find services, without having to click the “Find service(s)…” input box
  • You’ll be happy to know that the find box now listens for the spacebar so you can add to additional services more swiftly
• If users jump between your Share/Save and Subscribe widgets in one session, the “Find service(s)” text no longer interferes with a query

The Ol’ Down-Arrow (internally known as the ‘show off’ button)

• Includes a tool-tip to explain what it does
• After clicking the down-arrow, it’s replaced with an up-arrow that resets the menu
  • No more out-of-place “Add to Any” link (wasn’t that awkward?)

The Icons

• They’re better looking, they’re brighter
  • The compression quality induced artifacts so we now use a better compression method
• Shortly after we began using icons (the universal small kind), we started using CSS sprites to minimize the number of HTTP requests the menu had to make to completely load.  It’s been a boon for performance; everyone wins
• A good number of services had their icons updated
  • NowPublic‘s Marc (Design Director) and Michael (CTO) proactively sent us their new logo icon, a part of their brilliant new design
  • Sweden’s Pusha also scored us an icon and URI scheme
  • As usual, many other new services, like Ping.fm, were added to Add to Any

Analytics

• Fixed a bug that prevented some content from getting properly tracked in Google Analtyics

Many more updates to come!

June 30th, 2008

PostSecret is Frank Warren’s captivating blog that displays very special postcards each week.  The postcards are sent to him anonymously, and they contain [usually] handwritten secrets that were previously untold.

It’s not uncommon that Frank uses PostSecret to help raise awareness and calls to action about important issues.  This week, PostSecret is trying to raise awareness and financial support for Hopeline (1.800.SUICIDE), an independent hotline for suicide prevention.

The site typically uses Add to Any’s Share/Save widget to help visitors spread PostSecret.com, but this week Frank’s using the button uniquely.  In the first known use of our widget as a tool for spreading a link that’s outside the scope of a popular website, Frank has positioned the widget to help spread Hopeline’s awareness and fundraising campaign.

Check out PostSecret here.

June 24th, 2008

There’s another good reason we’ve always included every service in our widgets, and you’ll soon know why…

Today we’re announcing an awesome new change to our Share/Save and Subscribe widgets.

The service your visitors use are placed first within Add to Any widgets!

We’re not talking services you guess your visitors use, but much better: the services they really visit and use.

Let’s see it in action.

Go to one of your pages that includes an Add to Any widget, or see one on our blog. Mouse over one of the buttons, and you’ll see that the first services in the menu are the services you visit. (Like a form of black magic!) If you start visiting other services, those services will automatically appear in the menu as well. The same goes for everyone else, so each visitor is more inclined to add your content to the service(s) they actually use.

To figure out which services you visit, an Add to Any widget evaluates the massive list of services in its drop-down menu.  If your browser indicates that you’ve been to a service, that service is automatically bumped to the top of the menu.  Some black magic, eh? It’s about time someone put it to good use.

In fact, we’ve been putting the smarter menus to use on a few participating websites since last year. We analyzed stats to ensure that the new functionality was viable, useful, and an overall improvement (indeed!). We then polished, released, and gave a heads up to some people (Allen, Kristen, Josh, and others).

We’re now glad to say that it’s even easier for your visitors to share, save and subscribe to your content using the services they already use.

Yet another advantage of our original move to include every relevant service in our Share/Save and Subscribe widgets!