Comments on: Why I Hate Social Bookmarklets & Proof They Don’t Work

By: Marty

Marty — Mon, 18 May 2009 20:11:57 +0000

I’m not a social anything, I have a facebook and myspace account but nothing really fancy. I do have a verification, or different view for you. I found this site becuase I searched I hate Addthis, I was looking for a way to disable it, until I found out that it was the website that has it on the page. Why do I hate it, well it seems that these social bookmarklet pops up when I visit a website, not one specifically just sporadically. I don’t use, it usually just covers up the information that I’m reading, so I close that tab and move on to a different one to get to the same information. Since that information is found somewhere else, the is the page sans annoying pop-up that I what I email to friends or add to favorites to come back to later.

By: Marty

Marty — Mon, 18 May 2009 20:11:57 +0000

By: Name Generator Boy

Name Generator Boy — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 00:19:38 +0000

Late to the party I guess, but I have to disagree with you for two reasons.

#1: I decided to check my stats on “Add This” (I didn’t even realize they had tracking until recently) and saw that it’s getting about 50 uses per month. That’s not bad since it means I’m getting a bunch of external links to my site just from the tool.

#2: Add This offers an “Email This” option as well as the social bookmarking stuff. That’s great for small sites that don’t have their own “Email This” button set up. Really, I can’t see why you wouldn’t at least try it out and see if it helps.

By: Name Generator Boy

Name Generator Boy — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 00:19:38 +0000

Late to the party I guess, but I have to disagree with you for two reasons.

By: Rob

Rob — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 21:29:14 +0000

Social bookmarking of all your articles or pages does help bring traffic to your site. Some of my articles get better exposure from Digg, Delicious or Stumble Upon than any other way. So, I think it depends on your purpose and what you’re trying to accomplish with your blog. Maybe better for a product review site because of the information they include.

By: Rob

Rob — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 21:29:14 +0000

By: Common problems with blog usability

Common problems with blog usability — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:27:25 +0000

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By: Common problems with blog usability

Common problems with blog usability — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:27:25 +0000

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By: Simon

Simon — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 08:58:53 +0000

Now this is where it gets sticky. Because in the social space the thought leaders are individuals not companies. It is difficult for corporates to develop that presence effectively. Plus what happens if an employee moves? Increasingly when folk like us are head hunted we are taking all our online assets eg portfolio, reputation and links in the social space with us.

By: Simon

Simon — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 08:58:53 +0000

By: Erik Cunningham

Erik Cunningham — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:30:37 +0000

@Simon, great points, especially regarding site operator inhabited social media space. And I learned a new acronym! (imho = in my humble opinion)

By: Erik Cunningham

Erik Cunningham — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:30:37 +0000

@Simon, great points, especially regarding site operator inhabited social media space. And I learned a new acronym! (imho = in my humble opinion)

By: Simon

Simon — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 10:33:25 +0000

And a third voice from the SV perspective. Buttons of any description are imho a complete waste of space unless there is an active user community for that particular subject in the social media space. That space in turn needs to be inhabited by the operator of the same site. These guys with their ball bearings just make themselves look silly. Once upon a time to sell a product you needed to make a good product. Now you first need to demonstrate to the consumer that you understand the medium – the net – first. If you don’t it will hit sales and damage the brand. I carry a mental list of blue chips who I simply will not deal with. Their lack of net savviness makes me question all their brand values. This is very big business for us all potentially. Traditional design / graphics led agencies just don’t cut it. I call it integrated net communications. Search Engine awareness / SEO is a big part of that but the real deliverables are highly qualified traffic and dominating the user space in that particular field. That requires creative thinking and innovative clients. [Rant ends] lol……………..

By: Simon

Simon — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 10:33:25 +0000

By: John

John — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:16:14 +0000

I guess in theory they’re OK on blogs like this where people know what they mean and might actually use the bookmark services but i question their usage on sites like the BBC where the audience is so diverse in their abilities these buttons will confuse many.

The big problem I have with them is they get stuck onto sites without tracking to see whether they’re being used.

Nice rant Kelvin;-)

By: John

John — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:16:14 +0000

The big problem I have with them is they get stuck onto sites without tracking to see whether they’re being used.

Nice rant Kelvin;-)

By: Erik Cunningham

Erik Cunningham — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:45:49 +0000

I’m happy with my “Share This” plugin for WordPress. It’s small, unobtrusive, covers many referral processes (including email), and appears at the bottom of each post.

The rotating icon might be a little annoying but I don’t feel that it clutters the page or overshadows any content.

By: Erik Cunningham

Erik Cunningham — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:45:49 +0000

I’m happy with my “Share This” plugin for WordPress. It’s small, unobtrusive, covers many referral processes (including email), and appears at the bottom of each post.

The rotating icon might be a little annoying but I don’t feel that it clutters the page or overshadows any content.

By: Kelvin

Kelvin — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:07:18 +0000

spot on dane, if you’ve understood the overlap in audiences and think you’re of a certain quality they can give you a good bump.

Can’t argue with that.

In fact there’s a good digg plugin for example only appears if you’ve had a set number of votes.

My problem is the no thought addition of social bookmarks

By: Kelvin

Kelvin — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:07:18 +0000

spot on dane, if you’ve understood the overlap in audiences and think you’re of a certain quality they can give you a good bump.

Can’t argue with that.

In fact there’s a good digg plugin for example only appears if you’ve had a set number of votes.

My problem is the no thought addition of social bookmarks

By: Dane Morgan | Niche Blogger

Dane Morgan | Niche Blogger — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:54:24 +0000

As a call to action the “add this” class of multiple bookmarks in a pop up box probably do dilute the value, but what about a site that preselect a half dozen or so bookmarklets for individual services based on where they have been bookmarked most often by their readership and displays just those icons?

I suspect that the results might be a little different in that case.Which drive home the point that doing it the easy way is rarely doing it the good way.

By: Dane Morgan | Niche Blogger

Dane Morgan | Niche Blogger — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:54:24 +0000

I suspect that the results might be a little different in that case.Which drive home the point that doing it the easy way is rarely doing it the good way.

By: Kelvin

Kelvin — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 08:21:25 +0000

@Erik, as a call to action the add this chicklet/bookmarklet def has some value, but in many ways it’s still useless.

If gives them fifteen or so options to bookmark on surely that’s diluting it’s value (what percentage of your readers use newsvine?)

And still most users will have no clue what they are for, for many websites it’s like using a television advert to promote your website in 1989.

And when you delicious items is it because you use, value and understand delicious or because of a little tool which you have to hoover over reminding you?

By: Kelvin

Kelvin — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 08:21:25 +0000

@Erik, as a call to action the add this chicklet/bookmarklet def has some value, but in many ways it’s still useless.

If gives them fifteen or so options to bookmark on surely that’s diluting it’s value (what percentage of your readers use newsvine?)

And still most users will have no clue what they are for, for many websites it’s like using a television advert to promote your website in 1989.

And when you delicious items is it because you use, value and understand delicious or because of a little tool which you have to hoover over reminding you?

By: Erik Cunningham

Erik Cunningham — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:22:08 +0000

Counterpoint…

Bookmarklet links and widgets are a “call to action” and serve as both an easy reminder and an easy means for site visitors to share or bookmark a site.

What’s wrong with easy? Let me play devil’s advocate here…

This page has your phone number on it in two different places. Aren’t visitors smart enough to click on your “Contact” link and get your number there?

I bookmark articles all of the time in Delicious so I can categorize and store them for future reference and pass them on to friends and colleagues. That sounds like social media to me.