I use them frequently when I want to share something. If I'm reading a newspaper story that's interesting and I want to share it with my gf or friends, I usually use the "email it" button. If it's something that I'm really passionate about, then I might submit it to facebook, digg, etc... Though mostly I mainly use the email it feature.
Ask HN: How effective are "share this" buttons?
11–20 of 40 posts
Re: Ask HN: How effective are "share this" buttons?
#12Did Ghandi use Share This buttons? Does it matter?
this is officially my favorite comment of the day. matt, thank you for giving hn some humor :-)
Re: Ask HN: How effective are "share this" buttons?
#13Like so many things, the answer to do they "really work?"
will be quite variable.
In the interest of optimizing screen space you might look into implementing something like this.
Re: Ask HN: How effective are "share this" buttons?
#14In a non-technical niche, for the last 100,000 times I've displayed them, they've been clicked on 4 times and resulted in 1 save.
On the other hand, for the right sort of material (authoritative "you'll want to read this later" reference aimed at geeks), Delicious buttons perform VERY well for me.
Re: Ask HN: How effective are "share this" buttons?
#15As I user I do use these buttons, when I am not on my personal machines. If I am on one of my own machines, I use the wonderful Firefox plugin Shareaholic http://www.shareaholic.com/ to easily share links. As a developer would I use these buttons? Yes. Why use these buttons when it is possible for users to manually share links using X service? Because these buttons reduce the cognitive load of sharing that link. Maki…
> cognitive load required to complete an action or task in a human computer interface is directly (probably linearly) proportional to the number of clicks and keystrokes required to complete that action or task
The big question isn't cognitive load but "will the user complete the sequence" rates.
For that, I doubt that the drop-off is linear. I suspect success falls off exponentially in the number of clicks and/or mouse moves. That is, each time I have have to move my mouse or click, there's a non-zero chance that I'll give up.
I'd guess that clicks have a higher "forget it" ratio because clicks typically bring up new screens.
Re: Ask HN: How effective are "share this" buttons?
#16As I user I do use these buttons, when I am not on my personal machines. If I am on one of my own machines, I use the wonderful Firefox plugin Shareaholic http://www.shareaholic.com/ to easily share links. As a developer would I use these buttons? Yes. Why use these buttons when it is possible for users to manually share links using X service? Because these buttons reduce the cognitive load of sharing that link. Maki…
The Shareaholic Firefox plugin looks interesting, I was surprised to see it even has a YC Hacker News submit link, too.
Re: Ask HN: How effective are "share this" buttons?
#17Did Ghandi use Share This buttons? Does it matter?
The question should be "would Ghandi have used share this buttons".
Honestly, I have no idea.
Re: Ask HN: How effective are "share this" buttons?
#18Did Ghandi use Share This buttons? Does it matter?
The proper spelling is Gandhi.
Re: Ask HN: How effective are "share this" buttons?
#19As I user I do use these buttons, when I am not on my personal machines. If I am on one of my own machines, I use the wonderful Firefox plugin Shareaholic http://www.shareaholic.com/ to easily share links. As a developer would I use these buttons? Yes. Why use these buttons when it is possible for users to manually share links using X service? Because these buttons reduce the cognitive load of sharing that link. Maki…
like another user mentioned, shareaholic looks pretty interesting. however, i think browser plugins are too high friction for an average user to install. has anyone implemented something similar as a bookmarklet?