Web Page Screenshots boost visitor Confidence!
Website Thumbnails (also known as PagePix, thumbshots, snapshots, or previews) are web screenshots that can help you quickly and easily recognize web pages. Web page previews display the exactly what you would see before you click on a link.
Millions of people trust and rely on thumbshots to help them navigate online and stay in control of their surfing.
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Improve Search Accuracy Ex: Search for "shoes" may show shoes.com and fossil.com Humans are visual by nature and since most websites have a unique look-and-feel, it only makes sense to show visual cues (or previews) of websites next to search results. |
Recall Previously Visited Sites Ex: Which site was that again?? Recognize previously visited sites quickly just by glancing at a thumbshot. Never click on every search result again, just to find a site you've forgotten! Previews save time and effort! |
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Filter Offensive Sites Adult sites can usually be spotted very quickly -even in a small preview size. Website thumbnails help steer you clear. |
Filter Foreign Sites Visualize foreign sites and text. In the case of large thumbnails, you can even read the text most of the time! |
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Discover Ambiguous Sites Ex: Which site should a search for "pistons" give you? With website thumbnails , you can easily distinguish between an auto parts site and the Detroit Pistons NBA site. |
Find Inspiration and Beautiful Designs
Ex: ShrunkTheWeb Website Thumbnail Gallery Discover incredible designs you never would've known about just by glancing through galleries of thumbnails. |
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Keep a History for Archival Purposes Take snapshots of web pages and store the changed versions for point-in-time referencing and change control tracking. |
Filter Parked or Broken Sites Helps to point out domains that are "parked" or that may be offline. In these cases, a special thumbshot is shown. |
Website Screenshot Industry Related Whitepapers
| Download | White Paper Title | Author | Release Date |
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User Interface Design Using Screenshots
Research paper on advances in automated screenshot technology and use |
ShrinkTheWeb Julia Crenshaw-Smith |
2013 |
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Analysis of Usefulness of Website Screenshots Research on the Usefulness of Website Screenshots in Various Applications |
ShrinkTheWeb Mike Vaughn |
2013 |
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Benefits of Web Page Screenshots as Design Elements Real-world benefits to using web page screenshots in forward-thinking design |
ShrinkTheWeb Freelance Writer |
2013 |
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Exploring tiny images: the roles of appearance and contextual information for machine and human object recognition.
The importance of images within context to extrapolate desired information |
Virginia Tech | 2011 |
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A Taxonomy of Relationships Between Images and Text Establishes a taxonomy of image-text relationships that reflects the ways that images and text interact |
University of Maryland | 2003 |
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Searching The Web Using Screenshots Empirical evaluation of the utility of thumbnail previews in web search results |
Microsoft | 2002 |
Wave of the Future
Here is an example use case, where we use screenshots to clearly show comparisons of search result rankings.
High quality website thumbnails have begun to revolutionize the web, by giving an easier way to recognize and navigate the web. In 2011, Google released a preview for their search results. They call it Google Instant Preview. There was resistance, as with any BIG change, but Google steadfastly stood behind the previews as "the wave of the future." (and, of course, we agree).
UPDATE: Google never did integrate screenshots the way users wanted to see them and so Google received poor response. They must have a good reason to not show the preview beside the listing, automatically, but they chose to remove them altogether. This opens the door for another search engine to differentiate itself with the more visually appealing look of web page previews!
See other fantastic uses of our website thumbnails on our website thumbnails sample uses page.
Did you know?
- Millions of people have begun to frequent sites more often that use website thumbnails or thumbshots
- Our surveys tell us that 95+% of users would like to see thumbshots in their favorite search engine.
- Many companies employing website previews next to their affiliate links are seeing increased profits
What People Say About ShrinkTheWeb Thumbshots
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"Many of our forum's members have on-line businesses, and they always look for some extra exposure! That's why adding "shrink the web" to their profiles was such a hit!! Now visitors can see snapshot of a member's website in a profile! Our members LOVE this new feature!" -- Yulia, member of ShrinkTheWeb |
"I am simply loving your service. I experienced a lot of troubles with other thumbnail providers out there as their thumbnails were queued for over a week. It doesn't take more than 5 minutes from your side which is just superb. -- Vinayak, member of ShrinkTheWeb |
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"STW is a very easy to use service that can benefit just about anyone who blogs or has a website." -- Jonathon, member of ShrinkTheWeb |
"The thumbnail idea is a good one." -- Michael Rogers, editor for Newsweek.com |
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"I'd just like to say thanks for providing such an awesome service! -- Dan, member of ShrinkTheWeb |
"I just want to compliment you guys on an amazing and frankly irreplaceable service- I've been a designer for over 6 years and have very, very rarely found a service as dedicated, decent (and free!) as you guys. Y'all are doing a real service to webmasters everywhere, and to the web in general. Thanks for keepin it real." -- T, member of ShrinkTheWeb |
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