As promised we have an excellent new feature to debut on soLinkable. In an effort to further our goal of world domination creating a great user experience, we would like to announce that from this moment on, link submissions will no longer be using the websnapr thumbnail service. We have integrated a new user chosen thumbnail service into our existing framework, which will allow for an even more “personal” feel to the submissions. We want you to feel like you’re in control of exactly what goes into your submission.
The websnapr phase-out will not be immediate. All previous submissions made before the new user submitted thumbnail service will continue to show websnapr images with their story content. However, all new submissions made from this point on will now show either the selected thumbnail or no thumbnail at all (if ”No Thumbnail” is chosen/available).
We made sure that using the new feature would be very easy as we did this without adding any new complicated steps and with minimal change to the overall time it takes to submit a story. This was the most important part of our goal – to keep the site friendly. To not only make it seem like the users are truly contributing, but to make it easy to contribute.
Adding a custom thumbnail to your link is very simple – you may not even notice the new thumbnail option your first time through. Most of the work in the new feature is done behind the scenes. When you first submit a URL to be added, our servers read through the html source and pick out all the images they find. Next, they choose what are determined to be the most appropriate for the story (though this is still a work in progress) and meet a predetermined size constraint. The method will choose up to 4 possible images to include with your submission.
On step 2 (called “Submit – Step 2 of 3″) of the submission process below the description, you will be asked to “Choose a Story Picture”. You will be given the option of choosing from up to 4 images or sticking with no image at all. Selecting an image will cause the story to appear almost exactly as it was before, but instead of the websnapr thumbnail, the image shown will be the one you selected. By choosing “No Thumbnail”, the story will appear without any associated image – perfect for news articles.
The resulting soLinkable main page, with a mixture of real images and no images, really makes for a better user experience overall. The previous thumbnail images were much too cramped and in turn made the overall feel of the website seem small. The thumbnails make the site look nice and emphasize its user generated nature.
On a lesser note, you may also notice the new text area styles. This will (again, hopefully) allow for a better user experience and make it easier to submit content to soLinkable.
Thanks again for your continued support of the community. It has been so much fun building onto the site, and even more fun contributing to it. Keep it up!