The goal of most websites is to make sure the visitor stays on their website instead of going somewhere else. The most obvious jump-off point are external links.
Apture hopes to remedy that, or at least give an alternative and enables external links to now load contextually within the site. This includes both media (video and images) and text links:
Looks pretty neat, and I’ve already seen it on a number of people’s blogs.
There are also a number of plugins for most platforms for simple integration.
I personally will not be using it but that shouldn’t stop you!
Check it out if you’re interested.
What are your thoughts?
Stephen Bateman says
Looks good. Would it slow down the page much?
John Saddington says
perhaps. i’m looking into it.
Mitch Ebie says
I think that sounds great, John. The other day I was listening in on a Webinar, and this was one of the topics. Basically, the webinar facilitator showed us how to install a link so that the pop up did not include any other place to click and move away from your site. makes sense to me!
John Saddington says
neat!
David Knapp says
This looks really nice. I think I will try it out for a week or so. Are there any cons to it?
John Saddington says
load speed perhaps. might not play “nicely” with other scripts. looking into it.
Pastor Jeff says
I have been a Beta tester for the Apture plugin since it started and I LOVE IT.
The links open on my blog and I don’t lose readers to other browsers. The links are informative and don’t get in the way of your writing or photos, etc. They actually add to it.
Since my blogging platform is Typepad, I found it very easy to integrate Apture right to my blogs with just a few clicks.
Send me an e-mail if you have any questions and if I know the answer, I’ll let know, if not, I’ll let you know too
Blessings
John Saddington says
cool jeff! how’s typepad for you? ๐
David Knapp says
I am running my site on wordpress and just tried out Apture. I like it. I also like that using it is an option. In other words I can still add normal links that go away from my site if I want to.
I would provide the link that goes to the post I just wrote but I don’t want to be spammy, so I will just give you the title and you can take a look if you want:
Where Is Peine, Germany Again?
John Saddington says
go ahead and link. who cares? you’re a friend here!
David Knapp says
Thanks! ๐
First I wanted to say that the plugin auto inserts some code into the footer but I think it did it in the wrong place. It only worked half the time until I switched the code just write above /body tag.
Here is the post I was talking about:
http://mosaicmercy.com/where-is-peine-germany-again/
Also if anybody goes to this link make sure to click on the audio sermons tab toward the top. Apture automatically changed all of my audio files so that nobody has to leave to listen to the German sermons.
PhillipGibb says
very cool,
trying it now.
would like to get it to work with the flickr and vimeo videos I show in my footer (which is screaming for html5)
Tyler says
Honestly…I’m not a fan of this.The simple solution is having links open in a new window or new tab and establishing them that way in a blog post. That way people aren’t truly leaving your page. The only thing it creates for the reader is a more chaotic experience on the blog post.
bondChristian says
Agreed.
-Marshall Jones Jr.
David Knapp says
I found it works great for audio clips and wiki. Regular links probably should open in a new tab.
Scott Magdalein says
It may serve the purpose of keeping someone on your site for a few seconds longer, but is it worth the compromise in user experience? Isn’t the goal to provide such great value that users will not *want* to leave your site?
Most of the time I want to open a link in a new tab so I can finish what I’m reading. This would tick me off if I ran into it in the middle of a Dave Winer article. ๐
John Saddington says
word.
Nick Shoemaker says
I’m with Scott.
Seems like more than (most) need.
Graham says
Yeah I think this is the conclusion I’m coming to as well. At first when I saw this post I was excited but then I realized that I already do this when I put links in my posts. I tell them to open in a new tab or window and that way everyone is happy.
It’s how I browse the web too. When I go through the news section in Google I open articles that look interesting to me in a new tab and continue going down the list. It gives them time to load while I continue finding more stuff to read.
Andrew Machado says
Hey Guys,
I’m the community manager for Apture and wanted to say hi in case anyone had questions regarding what Apture does, page load with it installed, etc.
We actually just announced a new version of Apture version 2.0. You can see it in action on http://www.panda.org (simply scroll down the page 150 pixels or more)
Andrew