Tuesday, February 10, 2009

I'm Captured by Apture

I know I say this whenever I find some new gadget or gizmo, but this one really is the best thing for blogs since sliced bread. It's called Apture, and like Zemanta, it helps you to add links to your blog posts. But Apture takes things beyond where Zemanta goes -- with Apture, you can link to media files and point to more than one place with your link. It creates pop-up boxes -- yes, we all hate pop-up boxes, but stay with me here -- that show you a Wikipedia article, map, video, photo, or all of those things for one target.

I'm not very good at explaining this, so you'll have to see it in action. Go to one of my posts below. You'll notice that some of the links have a wee icon (book, camera, movie film, etc.) to the left of the link. Those are Apture links. Mouse over the link, but don't click. A box will open up and you'll see the linked item without ever leaving my blog. In most instances, I've got only one item for each link, but I've added maps and photos to some of them and will add more in due time.

If you like what you see, click on Get Apture at the bottom of one of my boxes. All you have to do is create a free account and follow the steps to put a gadget box on your blog. There's no software to download, so you can use it on any computer once you've made your account. Be sure to watch the tutorial video. You'll be Aptured before you know it.
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3 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:08 PM

    Hey M. J,

    Daniel at Apture here. Wanted to reach out and say thanks for the awesome blog post, and we hope your Apture experience goes great! If you have any suggestions or improvements to feel free to send them along as we're always changing and bettering the service., feel free to email us at contact@apture.com. Thanks in advance!

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  2. Anonymous8:28 PM

    I also use Apture on my blog - it is an excellent tool. The more I use it the more I like it and I am not using it to anywhere near it's potential yet.

    I have opened my apture to editing by anyone with an apture account - waiting to see how that develops.

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  3. Very cool - thanks for the tip, MJ!

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