Sean Kollak

An answer to every question

Who are the Muffin Men? What does Hendrix chord stand for? What is the meaning of the abbreviation WWW? Many bloggers and writers use specialist terms and acronyms or cite names their readers have never heard of. They sometimes link to an external website which offers more information. The disadvantage of hyperlinks is obvious though: Some readers will not return to your own website. That’s why we developed the Twick.it Tool Tip. This plug-in allows every webmaster to display 140 character short explanations as tool-tip. Even better: By pressing the alt key and highlighting text the reader can decide himself which words he wants to have explained. Thus TTT can give an answer to every question.

For writers and readers

The Twick.it Tool Tip empowers both writer and reader: The author of an article can define topics which might need explaining. In addition the reader can check on every word of the whole text. This is how it works:

1. The author marks words with the html-command [ twickit]. TTT searches for the currently best explanation in our database and sets a link. As soon as the reader hovers above the link the tool-tip will be displayed. If the reader clicks on the link he will be forwarded to the equivalent Twick.it topic page.
2. On every website that installed the Twick.it Tool Tip the reader can mark any word, sentence or list for explanation. All he has to do is hit the alt key and highlight the text segment.

(An article about the installation of our tool-tip is in the making. Please bear with us.)

Future explanations

Webmasters can mark any word with the [ twickit]-command. If the marked word has not been explained at Twick.it yet – nothing will happen. The reader doesn’t notice. As soon as somebody writes a corresponding Twick – the word will be transformed into a link. This function helps your articles stay up to date.

Explaining whole articles

You can use the [ twickitall]-command to find explanations for whole articles. But beware: As our database is growing rapidly your article will be transformed into a confusing hyperlink graveyard. Therefore we would suggest using this function for lists only. Remember: Too much information distracts the reading process. And if you promote the Twick.it Tool Tip to your reader, the -command is superfluous anyway, as….

Highlights are better than hyperlinks

Every webmaster knows this problem: He cannot look into the head of his readers. Even if he could every reader has got individual questions. Look at this simple sentence for example: “John Lennon was the mastermind of The Beatles.” How am I to know which component of this sentence needs to be further explained to a certain reader? Maybe he has never heard of John Lennon. Maybe he spontaneously wants to know the meaning of the first name John. Maybe he is looking for basic information concerning the music group The Beatles or he would like an explanation for the term Mastermind.

Whatever question is on your reader’s mind: TTT brings the answer onto the screen – without the need of leaving the browser-window currently opened.

Explaining every word in the web

Twick.it’s Tool Tip functions in every language, in every browser and in every programming code. In theory we can explain every word in the web. It all depends on two factors: Users filling Twick.it with useful content and webmasters integrating and promoting it on their homepages. We believe this can create a win-win situation: The better the Twicks are, the higher is the use of external applications. The more external applications are in use, the greater is the competition and quality control for the best possible explanation.

Download WordPress plug-in

We have created a plug-in for the blog-software Wordpress which has been tested on several blogs and works fine. You can download it here. Installation is a matter of seconds – and the configuration is quite simple as well.

Feedback welcome

If you are a web developer or blogger and have tried the Twick.it Tool Tip please give us some feedback. Does the standard configuration harmonise with your website? Do you need additional functions or configuration presets? To all fans of Joomla and Typo3: Why don’t you programme a Twick.it Tool Tip yourself? The code couldn’t be any more simple and millions of downloads can’t do your reputation any harm. We would be happy to promote your Twick.it plug-in in our blog, Facebook fan page and Twitter account.

Tags: concept, social glossary, Tool Tip