What Are Thumbshots™? 

Thumbshots™ are screenshots of web pages in thumbnail sizes. Integrating thumbshots in your directory enable your users to instantly visualize any web page before navigating to the site. Thumbshots are instant advertisements of web sites. We empower the next generation of search engines and directories by providing preview functionality.

Does Simple Solution support any URL? 

Yes, the Simple Solution supports any HTTP/HTTPS URL, both dynamic and static URLs. If we don't have the thumbshot for a URL, we will automatically generate it usually within a few minutes. Please note that certain thumbshots may not be available if the webmaster placed a robot restriction, the URL does not point to a valid HTML page or that site is not reachable.

What is the free thumbshots or Thumbshots.org? 

Thumbshots.org is an open and non-profit initiative. Giving free thumbshots is our way of contributing back to the Internet community. Volunteers, sponsors and donations make this cause possible. The thumbshots.org is limited to the URLs in the DMOZ.org directory whereas the commercial solution covers all the URLs in the world.

How can I use the free thumbshots and Simple Solution? 

The short answer is you shouldn't need to. The Simple Solution covers all the URLs. You'll need to do a bit of programming because the free thumbshots and Simple Solution use two separate sets of codes. Use the free Thumbshots.org code for links appearing in DMOZ.org directory and use the Simple Solution code for all your other links. You can find out which links belong in the DMOZ.org by reading the information from the freely downloadable DMOZ.org dump.

How do I know which plan to choose? 

To determine the appropriate plan, find out from your traffic logs to determine the hits you have. This should give you an idea of your needs. If you have chosen a plan that is not up to your needs, you may upgrade your plan or buy additional usage during the month.

Can I change plans? 

Absolutely! You may switch to any plan at anytime. You will have to pay the setup fee for the new plan. New plans will only start on your next billing month.

What if my traffic grows faster than expected? 

You can always purchase additional thumbshots in fixed blocks. This option is available in your account.

What are your payment terms? 

Thumbshots Simple Solution is simple. It lets you pre-pay your thumbshots in advance with your credit card. The setup fee and monthly fee are charged at the beginning of each billing month. At anytime, you may buy more usage for the current month. If you change a monthly plan, you may be charged with a nominal set up fee.

What is a billing month? 

Your billing month is the day of the month you signed up for the service. For example, if you signed up on Jan. 18, your billing months are Feb. 18, Mar. 18 and so on. Should your billing month fall on a day that does not exist in a calendar year, it will be taken on the next following day of the month. For example, if you signed up on Feb. 29 and it does not exist for this calendar year then your billing month will be rolled over to Mar. 1 and resume on Apr. 29, May 29 and so on.

What is your refund or cancellation policy? 

We do not have a refund policy. We have made thumbshots very affordable and low-risk for you. There is no long-term commitment and you can pay with your credit card. You can cancel your plan for the next following month with 7 days notice if you do not wish to continue.

What are the requirements to view thumbshots? 

Thumbshots will work on any web browser (IE, Opera, Mozilla, Netscape, AOL, etc.) supporting JPEG images. Users do not require any special software.

How long does it take to setup? 

After completing the sign up form and adding a few lines of HTML codes, you will be able to deploy thumbshots within a few hours.

Can I store the thumbshots? 

We provide an end-to-end turnkey solution. You don’t have to provide any hardware, software or bandwidth resources. We take care of everything for you! You shouldn't need to cache or store the thumbshots. Doing so may violate the terms of the agreement.

How often do you update the thumbshots? 

We are committed to provide a What You See Is What You Get experience. That means we ensure that the thumbshots are up-to-date. Our robot updates the thumbshots on periodic basis. The robot determines whether a particular site should be updated more or less frequently depending on the activity of that site. Most sites hardly change or the change is too subtle for the eye to detect (e.g. the change of a date on a page is not visible to the eye). There are several knobs we can tweak. With time and experience, the robot will adjust to optimally match a site's activity.

Can I serve ads with thumbshots? 

You are not allowed to serve any advertisements in place of thumbshots or the area intended for thumbshots. Please contact us if you want to serve ads.

Who will host the thumbshots? 

We take care of everything. You do not need to add any machine or bandwidth. There is no change to your backend system. You continue to host your web pages as before. Thumbshots are pulled from our servers directly by the end users.

How do I integrate thumbshots? 

Integrating thumbshots into your site is easy and takes a few minutes. After signing up, you will receive a short instruction on how to integrate thumbshots into your site. You do not need to add any machine, software or bandwidth.

All you have to do is add a few lines of HTML code to your page with the URL for the thumbshot you want to show. If we don't have the thumbshot matching your URL, we will automatically generate it usually within a few minutes. It's that simple!

For example, to generate a thumbshot of http://www.yahoo.com, the HTML code looks like this:

<IMG src="http://thumbshots.com/image?url=http%3A//www.yahoo.com">

To generate a thumbshot of http://www.cnn.com, the HTML code looks like this:

<IMG src="http://thumbshots.com/image?url=http%3A//www.cnn.com">

What should I do when I get an error during sign up? 

If you encounter any difficulties during the sign up process, please contact support with the exact details of the error message you received before you proceed further. Please do not send your credit card information by e-mail.

What are the dimensions and sizes available? 

The Simple Solution currently supports thumbshots of 60W x 45H pixels or 480W x 360H pixels only.

Will thumbshots slow down my site? 

The default thumbshot is only about 3kB in size and will download quickly even on 56kbps modems. In fact, thumbshots are helpful for users running on slow modem because users see where they are going and do not waste their time clicking to undesirable sites.

Can I display thumbshots on more than one site? 

Yes, you can serve thumbshots to multiple sites with one account provided that you own and operate these sites. However, you are not allowed to resell thumbshots.

How do you measure a hit? 

A valid thumbshot request is defined as a hit. If your page has 10 thumbshots, then you will be using 10 hits.