Snap.com

Snap.com is a search engine who provides popover previews of linked to sites. Both LiveJournal and Vox have partnered with Snap.com. It is likely they will join the Snap Share program to put ads in the Snap Shots that pop up over links.



You can turn them off on your journal by unchecking "Enable graphic previews on external links within your journal" on the Viewing Options page.

You can turn them off sitewide, if you can let Snap.com set a cookie on your computer:


 * Mouse over one of the links that has Snap.com on it. In the upper right hand corner of the box, there will be a gear like symbol. Click on it, and you'll be presented with an option page.
 * You will be able to check the box under the "Disable for:" section for "THIS site" or "ALL sites".
 * Click the save button.

NoScript can block Snap.com previews, as can Adblock Plus.

Reprinted article with permission
spacecowb0y has posted an article about various other ways to eliminate these "Snap Shots".

Two simple steps:

1. Toggle off Graphic previews in your Viewing Options. This disables Snap Shots for your own LJ.

2. Add .snap.com/$script and i.ixnp.com to your Adblock Plus filters. This will disable Snap Shots for the rest of LJ (and the rest of the Internet, hopefully):



Deep breath, sigh of relief. Spread the word, contain the plague.

Update: Opera users, have no fear! See this article to learn how to create your own filters, and just add the two terms as *.snap.com* and *.inxp.com*. ice_dragon00 has also pointed out that you can find Opera's content filters via its menus so you don't have to hunt and mess with the urlfilter.ini file. Working instructions with pictures are here.

''Incase the above links go poof, add *.inxp.com* and *.snap.com* to your Opera content filter to eliminate Snap. The content filter window can be accessed via Tools menu -> Advanced -> Blocked Content''

Update 2: Special request from IE users! This seems to be the best (if only) plugin for IE7 out there that can accept URLs to block, so if I'm reading the docs correctly you should enter in the terms like so:

*.snap.com/$script* *.ixnp.com*

Working instructions with handy-dandy pictures are here.

Update 3: Safari users, no, I haven't forgotten about you - try the freeware adblocking plugins here and just enter in the terms above as normal.

Update 4: For people on public computers (like students at school or people at a library), do they allow the use of USB drives? If so, Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition with Adblock Plus installed may save your butt.

Update 5: Camino users, look here for ad blocking instructions (thanks to therck who found this), and enter the terms as follows (I think):

host script 2 snap.com host script 2 ixnp.com

dafydd points out that the terms above should be tab-separated, and also work for the full SeaMonkey/Mozilla Application Suite on the Mac.

Update 6: If you'd rather not mess with ad blocking software and would prefer a blindingly simple browser-agnostic solution, the_mcp and filefish offer HOSTS file manipulation instead for both Windows and Mac at this thread.

Update 7: OmniWeb users on the Mac can join in on the blocking fun with instructions from wmilliken here.

Update 8: Astute user zwol has found a glaring mistake in one of the terms I listed - update your filters to use .snap.com/$script instead of just plain .snap.com/$cript. Not much of a biggie since it was working with the previous one, but it's better to be precise all the same.

FAQs

 * FAQ Question #277: How do I enable or disable graphic previews on links?

Posts

 * Something Snap.com this way comes
 * Ad Notables in Release 17