Chitika launches new Twitter tool for webmasters (via postie)
Anything that makes Twittering easier is OK in my book. Which is why I’m excited about a new product release from Chitika, an online advertising network helping companies target online consumers and buyers. Today, it annouced the launch of a new Twitter tool for webmasters called TinyTweets. The company’s first non-ad based product, TinyTweets allows webmasters to insert a special code into any website which then gives visitors the ability to tweet any highlighted copy directly from the website.
The new product can be found on Chitika’s Lab website. There you can actually try out the product as the company has inserted its own code on the Lab website. If you like it, copy the code and insert on your own website. Here’s my demo:
Using Firefox, I highlighted “Give your visitors the option to tweet any quote directly from your website with this tiny script” and a drop down image appeared that said “Tweet this.” After clicking the button, I was redirected to my Twitter page where the tweet was already entered with a tiny URL (the tiny URL links back to the page where you highlighted the text). Just hit the enter button and you’re done.
Note: I also tried this in Internet Explorer and the drop down menu didn’t appear. After contacting Chitika, they noted that their development team is working on fixing the issue.
If you’re looking for a bit more functionality, Bit.ly has a tool called Sidebar which opens a box on the side of your screen generating an automatic short URL for the page you’re on, a place to insert a tweet and even a stats icon that can show clicks. The Sidebar also shows other social networking conversations that might be taking place about the particular page.
The function will be useful for the tons of information that lives on the web that has no share options — such as Twitter or Facebook buttons. Rather, with TinyTweets, users will be able to simply highlight an article title or key quote and have the middle steps of copying, visiting Twitter and pasting done for them. My only concern how users will tell whether this capability exists or not on a particular site. I can only be let down so many times after highlighting and not seeing a “Tweet this.”
