I've never looked into these kinds of widgets before, but now I'm intrigued.

Besides http://addthis.com/ I've found similar services from 
http://sharethis.com/ and  http://www.addtoany.com/ and I suspect there 
are dozens more.

It looks like they make it really easy for the webmaster to add some 
great functionality to the site. But I'm wondering:

     How are these services making money for themselves?
     Are there any privacy / security issues for the visitor to the site 
or for the owner of the site?
     Do the services work reliably and do they affect page load times 
noticeably?
     How difficult would it be to switch from one of these sites to 
another, if a problem develops?

I guess the alternative is to build this stuff oneself, like the Walker 
did in the link below - but with the dizzying pace of new services being 
introduced I like the idea of gadget that keeps track of all the latest 
services automatically.

-Steve

> We just incorporated AddThis on the SFMOMA site. It's highly
> customizable and we're happy with it so far. We felt we didn't need to
> reinvent something that already existed and was available via a free
> tool. 
> You can see it on this collection page:
> http://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/213
>
>
> The Walker, being way cooler than us, built their own.
> http://blogs.walkerart.org/newmedia/2008/12/22/enabling-users-to-share-c
> ontent-to-social-media-sites/
>
> Dana
>
>  
> ......................................
> Dana Mitroff Silvers
> Head of Online Services
> San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
> 151 Third Street
> San Francisco, CA  94103-3159
> dmitroff at sfmoma.org
> www.sfmoma.org
>
>
>   

-- 

Steve Rothman, Systems Administrator
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
617-495-9968   -   srothman at fas.harvard.edu 


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