The Tao of MyLinkShares

It's obvious to some that you can author an email, copy-and-paste the URL from your address bar into that email, and send it to someone. But, it's not obvious to everyone.

Explaining why you're sending an email to someone with instructions that they should click on the link you've embedded (if it comes through as a link - in which case they will need instructions on copying and pasting the URL into their address bar) can get a little old. Especially if you send a lot of links.

If you add it all up, sending someone a link to a website you want them to see isn't always a straight forward proposition - especially if your recipient is grandma.

Even if a website you want someone to see has an "email this article" link on it you're not always guaranteed a straight forward operation. Sometimes you will get a custom form, or worse, sometimes the link will try to open your default email client - and on a slow box that can really be painful.

So even though it may seem like MyLinkShares isn't really solving any problems, if you look at it closely, you might find it fits a nice little niche'.

When I first came up with MyLinkShares I wasn't thinking of a Firefox button at all. I intended the user to copy-and-paste the URL into the form and go from there - which isn't too smooth.

When I came up with the idea of the MyLinkShares Firefox button things suddenly came together. Admittedly the MyLinkShares Firefox button takes MyLinkShares from a curiosity to something extremely useful.

Unfortunately, the major piece missing right now is a link to your email contacts from the MyLinkShares form. But, I am working on that. I expect to have some kind of prototype in the next few weeks. Maybe starting with GMail and moving on to the other major mail services.

Anyway, I appreciate all the support people have given me. And to those who are on the border of becoming a convert, please give it a try, keep an open mind, and give me constructive feedback - gadget@pykyl.com

Thanks,

Bruce S.

MyLinkShares

What is MyLinkShares?

MyLinkShares is a free, anonymous, and simple way to send up to three recipients a link (or links - one on each line) to a website you want them to see, without having to log into your email account and create an email - which can take a little while. MyLinkShares is free to use, and doesn't require creating an account.

The best way to use MyLinkShares if you're an Internet Explorer, Safari, or Opera user is to sign up for iGoogle and add the gadget to your home tab. The best way to use MyLinkShares if you're a Firefox user is to use the MyLinkShares Firefox Add-on. Read about that here.

Give it a try, it's handier than you might think.

Features

Ability to send more than one link at a time.

You don't need to create an account to use MyLinkShares.

You can use MyLinkShares to email yourself links to websites you want to visit later.

It's a Google gadget, so you can add it to iGoogle!

No need to get into your email client and author a new email (more of hassle than it seems).

How Do I Use MyLinkShares?

Either go to www.mylinkshares.com, or add MyLinkShares to your iGoogle account by clicking . Then follow the directions below.

The Link(s) Box

To use MyLinkShares, copy the website address from your Address bar in your web browser, then click in the Link(s) box and paste the address into the box. Ctrl + C copies, Ctrl + V pastes.

You can put multiple website addresses in the Link(s) box on separate lines. The Link(s) box is a required field.

The To Box

In order to share your link with up to three other people you are required to have at least one recipient. Simply enter their email addresses in the To box separated by either a comma, space, or semi-colon (e.g., bob@bob.com;jan@jan.com, joe@joe.com).


NOTE: MyLinkShares will send a link to the first three valid email addresses it finds. It will stop sending emails after it finds three valid addresses. So, if you put in 50 email addresses, don't expect 50 people to get the link.

The From Box

This is where you enter your from email address (that's your email address - e.g., you@yourdomain.com). It's a good idea to include your email address in the From field, although it's not required. Doing so will have several benefits. First, the email link to your website has a better chance of making it through your recipient's SPAM filter. Second, the recipient will know who the link is from, and is less likely to delete it. Finally, if your recipient wants to reply to you, to tell you how much they loved the website you recommended, they can. If you don't include a From email address MyLinkShares is used.


One more note on the From field; the email address you enter is stored on your computer as a cookie (you have to have cookies enabled) for future use so you don't have to keep entering a from email address over and over again. If you want it blanked out, just blank out the string and send a link. The cookie will be deleted.

The Subject Box

It's helpful, although not required, to include a descriptive Subject so the person receiving the email doesn't think they are getting SPAM'd, and it's your opportunity to give your recipient a description or reason why you're sending them a link.

The ReCaptcha Challenge

In order to keep people from writing scripts against MyLinkShares it is mandatory to fill out a ReCaptcha key. It's pretty simple to use, and keeps MyLinkShares humming along democratically. To send a link you MUST type the words you see in the white box area in the ReCaptcha box verbatim. If you don't, you will get an error warning you that you can't send the link. If you can't read the words (some of them are pretty hard to read), just click the little recycle arrows on the ReCaptcha form until you get some words you can read. You can also listen to the words if you press the little speaker icon (for those that are sight impaired). If you mess something up you will have to re-gen a new ReCaptcha key by using the little recycle arrows. I'm using re-captcha because it provides security for MyLinkShares and also has the added benefit of helping a good cause. Check it out on their website.

The Send Button

Now that you've filled out all the proper information, click the Send... button and your link will be sent.

What Happens After You Click the Send Button?

If everything is filled out correctly, your recipient, or recipients will get an email with the link you sent to them. All they have to do is click on the link in their email client (such as Microsoft's Outlook, or Google's GMail, or Yahoo's YMail), and their default web browser (such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Mozilla's Firefox, or Apple's Safari) will open to the web page the link points to. Here's an example of what the email looks like.

Bloggers and Website Developers

If you want a quick way for your users to spread the word out about your blog or website, consider adding a MyLinkShares button to your website like the one below.

Get the code for this button here.

Terms of Use

Use MyLinkShares at your own risk. Pykyl, and all Pykyl affiliates, offer no warranty on MyLinkShares, nor provide remuneration for using MyLinkShares. If MyLinkShares is not working, or failing in any way shape or form Pykyl, and all Pykyl affiliates cannot be held responsible. Nor can Pykyl, or any of its affiliates be held accountable or liable to damage done to your computer or computer network as a result of using MyLinkShares.

Abuse. If you are found to be abusing MyLinkShares, Pykyl will take steps to stop you from using the service including technical and legal means.

Privacy Policy

Anonymity. Pykyl makes no legal claim that your anonymity will be protected when using MyLinkShares. If a warrant is served by the appropriate authorities, Pykyl will comply with that warrant. Although, Pykyl will not share your IP address, nor any other information gathered during the use of MyLinkShares with any non Pykyl affiliate.

Public Network. All links are sent over a public network unencrypted.

MyMusicShares

What is MyMusicShares?

MyMusicShares is a free, anonymous, and simple way to share a song that you like with someone else. All you have to do is select a DRM free mp3 file from your hard drive, fill out the To and From email address fields, fill out a Subject, answer the ReCaptcha challenge, then press the Upload... button. MyMusicShares will upload and store the mp3 file for you, then send your friend, or friends, an email with a link to listen to the song. It's a great way to share new music you've discovered that you think your friends might like.

Features

Easily upload a song and email a link to the song to up to three recipients.

Your recipients don't get a copy of the song, they can only listen to it.

All audio files sent through MyMusicShares are DRM free.

There's no need to set up an account to use MyMusicShares.

How Do I Use MyMusicShares?

You don't need to create an account to use MyMusicShares. If you want to share a song with someone, just follow these instructions.

The Song Box

The Song box is a required field. In order to share a song you need to tell MyMusicShares what music file you want to upload. Click the Browse... button (Firefox and Internet Explorer), Choose... button (Opera), or Choose File button (Safari) and a file selection dialog box will open to let you select the file you want to upload. Navigate to the place on your computer where your music file is located and select it. The dialog box will disappear, and the Song box will contain the path and file name of the file you want uploaded. If you accidentally select the wrong file just click the Browse... button (Firefox and Internet Explorer), Choose... button (Opera), or Choose File button (Safari) again to select the file you really want.

NOTE   Your file must be a DRM free mp3 (a music file with a .mp3 file extension) file that is smaller than 5MB in size. Also, because the file you're sending is probably going to be several megabytes in size it'll take a minute or two to upload it - be patient and don't click other buttons while it's uploading.

The From Box

This is where you enter your from email address (that's your email address - e.g., you@yourdomain.com). It's a good idea to include your email address in the From field, although it's not required. Doing so will have several benefits. First, the email link to your song has a better chance of making it through your recipient's SPAM filter. Second, the recipient will know who the link is from, and is less likely to delete it. Finally, if your recipient wants to reply to you, to tell you how much they loved the song, they can. If you don't include a From email address MyMusicShares is used.


One more note on the From field; the email address you enter is stored on your computer as a cookie (you have to have cookies enabled) for future use so you don't have to keep entering a from email address over and over again. If you want it blanked out, just blank out the string and upload a song. The cookie will be deleted.

The To Box

If you want to share the song with up to three other people MyMusicShares will send them an email with a link to your song. Simply enter their email addresses in the To box separated by either a comma, space, or semi-colon (e.g., bob@bob.com;jan@jan.com, joe@joe.com).


NOTE: MyMusicShares will send a link to the first three valid email addresses it finds. It will stop sending emails after it finds three valid addresses. So, if you put in 50 email addresses, don't expect 50 people to get the link.

The Subject Box

It's helpful, although not required, to include a descriptive Subject so the person receiving the email link doesn't think they are getting SPAM'd.

The ReCaptcha Challenge

In order to keep people from writing scripts against MyMusicShares it is mandatory to fill out a ReCaptcha key. It's pretty simple to use, and keeps MyMusicShares humming along democratically. To upload, and send a link to a song you MUST type the words you see in the white box area in the ReCaptcha box verbatim. If you don't, you will get an error warning you that you can't upload and send the link. If you can't read the words (some of them are pretty hard to read), just click the little recycle arrows on the ReCaptcha form until you get some words you can read. You can also listen to the words if you press the little speaker icon (for those that are sight impaired). If you mess something up you will have to re-gen a new ReCaptcha key by using the little recycle arrows. I'm using ReCaptcha because it provides security for MyMusicShares and also has the added benefit of helping a good cause. Check it out on their website.

The Upload Button

Now that you've filled out all the proper information, click the Upload... button and your song will be uploaded.

What Happens After You Click the Upload Button?

If everything is filled out correctly, and you've selected a valid DRM free mp3 file, the file will upload (keep in mind these are big files and can take up to several minutes to upload), then any recipients you entered will be sent an email with the link in it that takes them to a page where they can listen to the song. All they have to do is click on the link in their email client (such as Microsoft's Outlook or Hotmail, or Google's GMail, or Yahoo's YMail), and their default web browser (such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Mozilla's Firefox, or Apple's Safari) will open to the web page the link points to.

Once the song is uploaded, you will see a screen that has a link for you to go and listen to the song yourself (if desired). If you want to upload another song, click the X to get rid of the link screen and go back through the same process as described above. Note that you will have to generate another ReCaptcha challenge with the little recycle arrows on the ReCaptcha form before you can upload.

Terms of Use

Copyrighted Material. All songs are copyrighted by their respective owners, and you cannot profit from this service using someone elses copyrighted material. If the owner of the song wishes to have their copyrighted material removed, Pykyl will comply with that wish.

Use MyMusicShares at your own risk. Pykyl, and all Pykyl affiliates, offer no warranty on MyMusicShares, nor provide remuneration for using MyMusicShares. If MyMusicShares is not working, or failing in any way shape or form Pykyl, and all Pykyl affiliates cannot be held responsible. Nor can Pykyl, or any of its affiliates be held accountable or liable to damage done to your computer or computer network as a result of using MyMusicShares.

Abuse. If you are found to be abusing MyMusicShares, Pykyl will take steps to stop you from using the service including technical and legal means.

Privacy Policy

Anonymity. Pykyl makes no legal claim that your anonymity will be protected when using MyMusicShares. If a warrant is served by the appropriate authorities, Pykyl will comply with that warrant. Although, Pykyl will not share your IP address, nor any other information gathered during the use of MyMusicShares with any non Pykyl affiliate.

Public Network. All songs and emails are sent over a public network unencrypted.

MyPicShares

What is MyPicShares?

MyPicShares is a free, anonymous, and simple way to share and communicate with pictures - and a convenient way to add pictures to your blog or website. MyPicShares is not a photo gallery application - instead, it is a way to communicate with pictures.

Features

A great feature of MyPicShares is that you don't need to create an account to use it. In fact, the original idea behind MyPicShares was to create a quick and anonymous way to get a picture online without going through an onerous account signup process. Just upload, and your picture is ready to use.

Another great feature of MyPicShares is that you can link to your pictures from a blog or a website. That way you don't have to go searching for a place to host your picture, and can get your blog entry or website done in a more timely fashion.

How Do I Use MyPicShares?

MyPicShares is pretty darn easy to use. The only required field is the Pic field. This is the field that tells MyPicShares what picture to upload and display.

The Pic Box

To use MyPicShares, click the button next to the Pic box (or just the button if you're a Safari user) and a file selection dialog box will open.

Navigate to the place on your computer where your picture lives, and select it. Once you click OK, or Select, or whatever the dialog box says to indicate you've made your choice, you will see the path to the file you selected in the Pic box (unless you're using Safari - in which case you will see the name of your file next to the button).

At this point you haven't uploaded your picture yet! All you've done so far is select the picture you want to upload. If you don't want to send a link to your picture to someone, so they can look at the picture too, click the Upload... button and the upload process will begin.


NOTE: You can upload a file up to 500KB, or half a Meg. Your picture must have a .jpg .jpeg .gif .tif .tiff .bmp or .png extension.

The To Box

If you want to share the picture with up to three other people MyPicShares will send them an email with a link to your picture. Simply enter their email addresses in the To box separated by either a comma, space, or semi-colon (e.g., bob@bob.com;jan@jan.com, joe@joe.com).


NOTE: MyPicShares will send a link to the first three valid email addresses it finds. It will stop sending emails after it finds three valid addresses. So, if you put in 50 email addresses, don't expect 50 people to get the link.

The From Box

This is where you enter your from email address (that's your email address - e.g., you@yourdomain.com). It's a good idea to include your email address in the From field, although it's not required. Doing so will have several benefits. First, the email link to your picture has a better chance of making it through your recipient's SPAM filter. Second, the recipient will know who the link is from, and is less likely to delete it. Finally, if your recipient wants to reply to you, to tell you how much they loved the picture, they can. If you don't include a From email address MyPicShares is used.


One more note on the From field; the email address you enter is stored on your computer as a cookie (you have to have cookies enabled) for future use so you don't have to keep entering a from email address over and over again. If you want it blanked out, just blank out the string and upload a picture. The cookie will be deleted.

The Subject Box

It's helpful, although not required, to include a descriptive Subject so the person receiving the email doesn't think they are getting SPAM'd.

The ReCaptcha Challenge

In order to keep people from writing scripts against MyPicShares it is mandatory to fill out a ReCaptcha key. It's pretty simple to use, and keeps MyPicShares humming along democratically. To upload a picture you MUST type the words you see in the white box area in the ReCaptcha box verbatim. If you don't, you will get an error warning you that you can't upload the file. If you can't read the words (some of them are pretty hard to read), just click the little recycle arrows on the ReCaptcha form until you get some words you can read. You can also listen to the words if you press the little speaker icon (for those that are sight impaired). If you mess something up you will have to re-gen a new ReCaptcha key by using the little recycle arrows. I'm using re-captcha because it provides security for MyPicShares and also has the added benefit of helping a good cause. Check it out on their website.

The Upload Button

Now that you've filled out all the proper information, click the Upload... button and your picture will be uploaded.

Terms of Use

Use MyPicShares at your own risk. Pykyl, and all Pykyl affiliates, offer no warranty on MyPicShares, nor provide remuneration for using MyPicShares. If MyPicShares is not working, or failing in any way shape or form Pykyl, and all Pykyl affiliates cannot be held responsible. Nor can Pykyl, or any of its affiliates be held accountable or liable to damage done to your computer or computer network as a result of using MyPicShares.

Abuse. If you are found to be abusing MyPicShares, Pykyl will take steps to stop you from using the service including technical and legal means.

Copyright Infringement If asked by a copyright owner of a picture, Pykyl is obligated to remove the picture from MyPicShares.

Privacy Policy

Anonymity. Pykyl makes no legal claim that your anonymity will be protected when using MyPicShares. If a warrant is served by the appropriate authorities, Pykyl will comply with that warrant. Although, Pykyl will not share your IP address, nor any other information gathered during the use of MyPicShares with any non Pykyl affiliate.

Public Network. All pictures are sent over a public network unencrypted.

MyLinkShares Firefox Add-on

I've developed a MyLinkShares Firefox Add-on. The Add-on's job is to enable you to share websites with your friends and family without having to copy the URL from the address bar, go into your email client, start a new email, embed the link, etc. etc...

The MyLinkShares Add-on accomplishes this by giving you a little button that can be placed on your favorite Firefox toolbar that will do the dirty work for you.

The button collects the URL and Page Title of the page you're looking at, opens a new MyLinkShares tab and fills out the Link(s) and Subject box for you - no need to cut and paste.

Simply fill out the To box with your recipient's email address or addresses, provide a From email address (so your recipients know who it's from), fill out the ReCaptcha challenge, and press the Send... button. Your recipients will receive an email with a clickable link to the website you were just looking at, as well as some information as to why they are receiving the link.

Intrigued?

To install this button follow these directions.


1) Go to www.mozilla.com


2) Click the Add-ons link




3) Type mylinkshares into the search box and click Enter




4) Click the Add to Firefox button. Note: Because MyLinkShares is still in the Firefox Sandbox you have to have a Mozilla.com account to install - a free and quick action.




5) Follow the install instructions


6) Click View -> Toolbars -> Customize...


7) Drag the MyLinkShares button to your favorite toolbar then click the Done button




8) While you're surfing, to use MyLinkShares just click the button!




Note:

At first I wanted to auto-add the button to your main Firefox toolbar, but I thought that might be kind of rude. That's why I make you go through the trouble of adding the button through the Customize Toolbar dialog box. That way you can add the button to whatever toolbar you want.

IE Bug and the Forward to friends Button

When I added the Forward to friends button in the sidebar of the various shares home pages, I introduced a bug that effected Internet Explorer users.

This bug rendered the various shares utilities useless in IE if used from their respective home pages.

Unfortunately, it's been around since I first put the button in several weeks ago. Basically, I had the same function name in two different Java scripts (which apparently is a no-no in IE). I've resolved the issue, and the various shares utilities should now be good to go for all users.

Shares Mini Gadget

Pykyl has created a gadget that encompasses all the functionality of MyLinkShares, MyPicShares, and MyMusicShares in a mini-gadget that doesn't take up too much of your premium iGoogle screen real estate. If you were reluctant to try any of the Shares gadgets because they are too big, but really wanted to be able to get to them easily, this mini-gadget is for you!

Try it out. It's pretty cool.



You can add it to iGoogle by clicking the colorful + Google button above.

MyLinkShares Button Script

MyLinkShares is a great way to increase traffic to your blog or website. It's a little like social bookmarking (e.g., del.icio.us) but instead of creating bookmarks for others to stumble upon, you're sending links out to your friends, family, and colleagues. When your friends, family, or colleagues get an email from MyLinkShares with a link to your blog or website, they simply click on that link and it will take them directly to it! Of course, your friends and colleagues have other friends and colleagues too, so they forward your link to them, and so on...word can really get out there!

Embedding the code is pretty easy. Just cut-and-paste the code below for one of the button sizes and place it in your blog or website. All the behind the scenes details will be taken care of by the script.

Note This script relies on embedded JavaScript. Some blogging services (such as WordPress) don't permit you to do that (or have limited embedding capabilities) for security reasons.

Anyway, here's the code.

Large Link Button

<script type="text/javascript">
mylinkshares_url = location.href;
mylinkshares_subj = document.title;
</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.mylinkshares.com/button/linksharesbtn.js" ></script>

20x20 Link Button

<script type="text/javascript">
mylinkshares_url = location.href;
mylinkshares_subj = document.title;
btn_style = "20";
</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.mylinkshares.com/button/linksharesbtn.js" ></script>

18x18 Link Button

<script type="text/javascript">
mylinkshares_url = location.href;
mylinkshares_subj = document.title;
btn_style = "18";
</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.mylinkshares.com/button/linksharesbtn.js" ></script>

16x16 Link Button

<script type="text/javascript">
mylinkshares_url = location.href;
mylinkshares_subj = document.title;
btn_style = "16";
</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.mylinkshares.com/button/linksharesbtn.js" ></script>

MyShares Gadgets

Hi, I started this blog to talk about all things MyPicShares, MyMusicShares, and MyLinkShares. If you've used any of these gadgets and love em' or hate em', let me know your thoughts. I'm always open to suggestions about making things better. Over the next little while I'll be posting updates, answers to questions, and news about these little gadgets. Please check back regularly as more stuff is to come.