How to Get it?
Check out the API site on Plaxo.com. Here is the direct link:
http://www.plaxo.com/api/widget?src=ab_chooser

Description on Plaxo.com:
“The Address Book Access Widget is a simple-to-implement snippet of JavaScript that you can embed on any web page. The Widget allows visitors to a particular site to (1) seamlessly import contacts from multiple address books, (2) select entries, and (3) enter selected data into web page forms. For the millions of existing Plaxo members, the Widget allows them to access their complete Plaxo address book directly from your site.” – Plaxo.com

So, why use the Plaxo Address Book Widget?

1. It seems VERY easy to install and the link above has a great walkthrough of the 4 step process.
2. This would take forever to code manully. They do all the parsing and aggregation work for you; all you need to do is create an HTML form. How cool!
3. When used in conjunction with ShareThis or AddThis, this widget provides yet another direct way for users to get their friends and contacts involved in the action.

What does it look like?
You can style the LAUNCH button any way you care to on your site. Ultimately it just has to be a hyperlink that opens the pop-up window using the code provided. Here is what the pop-up:

More to come on this as I have a chance to actually install it…

Here’s the list:

• SharePost
• AddThis
• Snipurl / Snurl / Snipr
• Digg

[Editor's note: I decline to install browser toolbars such as the ShareThis toolbar simply on principle. A proper tool is web based ]

Now mind you, IE6 is over 8 years old however according to this report found on w3schools.com, in 2009 15-18% of users still have IE6 while only ~25% of users have upgraded to IE7 or IE8.

What’s the big deal?
Well, there are 2 effects of this issue for IE6 users.

1. The button doesn’t actually show up.
2. A nasty javascript error appears:
   

Buttonless vs. JavaScript Woes
In this case, the disappearance of the button is not such a big deal as it doesn’t cause any real functionality problems however it is not ideal that fairly large population of users will not have the option to share the content.

On the other hand, a javascript error is not acceptable especially since each product page of the site features a purchase box. I am concerned that security concerned users might not feel safe using a checkout mechanism that appears to have errors. (Thankfully, the checkout at least still functions properly).

What is a web designer to do?
Should one worry about this JavaScript error showing up for IE6 users? Do users even notice the JavaScript error in their browser’s bottom left corner, and if so do they care?

My guess is probably not so I suppose we will keep the button it until I find a solution that works for all browsers.

Posted using ShareThis

[Editor's Note: This a great post by Dave Knox on ShareThis.com. It introduces the term "Marketing Technologist" and provides sound justification for my own "Social Media exploration".]

a) the reader who finds content and wants to tell others about it
b) the content owner who wants to provide as many “sharing” outlets as possible for said reader

As a reader…
I have started to see the ShareThis menu on an increasing number of websites and to date I’ve used it a few times to share links to my facebook. When you click on their “share icon”, an in-line menu pops up and allows you to scroll through several “pages” of Social Network names that you can select from. As a non-registered user of ShareThis, this service allows a reader to send a link to that content to any other social network they are registered users of.

This function in and of itself is terrific as it saves me, the reader, from having to log into those services and manually creating a new post or status message or tweet or whatever. The downside to this is that there doesn’t seem to be a way to include any additional context to the link message that you are sharing. In facebook, I am able to add my “2 cents” in additional to whatever content I am linking to. This could be user error though…still investigating.

As a website/content owner…
I have not personally put the ShareThis menu on any of my websites yet however I certainly plan to. There are obvious benefits for providing such an easy way for interested readers to share what they have just found on your site with others. Having one gadget that interfaces with so many Social Networks as seemlessly as ShareThis seems to is tremendous.

Unlike Ping.fm, this service does not seem to be intended to allow content owners to publish updates to multiple Social Networks at once. Instead, you can send URL content directly to contacts that you import into the Contact Manager. I not sure what that looks like though. Is it an email that is sent to them? A chat message if its an AIM or GChat contact? Unknown… (Anyone want to be a guinea pig?). As such, I am not 100% sold on the usefulness of this feature set yet.

Membership has its privileges
In addition to the easy sharing functionality you get as an unregistered reader, by signing up for an account you get a few extra perks.

First there’s the ShareBox: a private(?) repository of all the things you have shared or want to share with others. My understanding is that as long as you are signed-in, anything you share throughout the WWW using this ShareBox tool will also get archived in your ShareBox. The ShareBox archive is taggable and searchable so this seems to be a good way to extract all of the URLs from your feeds that might have a ton of other non-link content.

Also, as mentioned above, there’s the Contact Manager. This is touted as an easy way to consolidate all of your contacts into one “mashup” so that you can share something directly with another user with one click. You can import contacts from a few popular webmail services (gmail, hotmail, aol), myspace contacts, or manual input using either a CSV dump or one by one. That said, I can’t readily think of a time when I’d want to send a specific link to a friend without any contextual information (ie just sending a quick email or private messaging via a Social Networking site). Maybe that’s what the labels are for?

More to come on all this as I am sure I will uncover more the further I get into it.

Posted using ShareThis

Today begins the great adventure
2 hours of Google searching have made it abundantly clear that this is going to be no easy task. With hundreds of “core” services and a seemingly limitless supply of “plug-ins” and “apps”, where does one even begin??

First services to test
Blogger.com (http://greghofbauer.blogger.com)
Twitter.com (http://twitter.com/ghofbauer)
Facebook.com (http://www.facebook.com/gregory.hofbauer)
Ping.fm