What tools do you use to share websites with friends?

January 12, 2005 2:12 PM

Do you use web sites' "send this page to a friend" tools, or just copy the URL and paste it into an email? (I copy-and-paste because I'm jaded and cynical and suspect the tools collect email addresses.)
posted by kirkaracha to Computers & Internet (22 answers total)

I'ma cut and paster precisely because they don't need my email address.
posted by fenriq at 2:13 PM on January 12, 2005

Yes, I assume most sites that offer "e-mail to a friend" collect the provided e-mail addresses.
posted by xmutex at 2:16 PM on January 12, 2005

Isn't there usually some kind of ad/shill in the sign off text of the web site email?

And don't forget that a fair few folks have trouble emailing links off their own backs...
posted by i_cola at 2:20 PM on January 12, 2005

Neither. I click "File" and "Send Link." Easy.
posted by rushmc at 2:21 PM on January 12, 2005

I like the personal touch of a direct email, and suspect my friends are of the same mindset. Plus I can include my witty or insightful thoughts with a copy-n-paste.
posted by AlexReynolds at 2:22 PM on January 12, 2005

C&P, always. I hate spam, and would hate to be responsible for it being inflicted on people I claim as friends.
posted by five fresh fish at 2:27 PM on January 12, 2005

I use the email feature at Bloglines all the time and so far so good.
posted by sled at 3:01 PM on January 12, 2005

I use File -> Send -> Page By Email for collogues at work. Lets them see password protected pages (variety.com, hollywoodreporter.com etc) that if copy-pasted would have formatting issues and not show clearly.

works wonders.
posted by Lizc at 3:08 PM on January 12, 2005

Everytime one of my friends sends me something with a "send this page..." link, I compose an email castigating them for bringing spam down upon my house, but then delete it unsent because I'm not that big of a dick. In other works, I copy and paste.
posted by stet at 3:22 PM on January 12, 2005

When I want to send a page from a subscription and there is a "send e-mail" link on the page, I will send the e-mail to my spamtrap account and then forward it on, so I dont' give anyone else my friends' e-mail addresses.
posted by grouse at 3:24 PM on January 12, 2005

Most major companies that do this (nytimes, zdnet, etc) have strict privacy policies about stuff. We have a "send to a friend" option on eCards that we create at my job, and make it a point to not collect any information onto our servers. YMMV.
posted by softlord at 5:51 PM on January 12, 2005

A lot of blogs use standard movable type / wordpress plugins for this, that (if unmodified) don't collect addresses.
posted by Tlogmer at 6:06 PM on January 12, 2005

I IM links all the time if the person is online (generally without even saying hello, just dump the link into the window because I have poor interpersonal skills). If not, I come close to abusing the Bloglines email feature and sometimes use the feature on sites that I trust. For instance, I figure Wired News isn't interested in spamming me.
posted by revgeorge at 6:12 PM on January 12, 2005

I copy and paste, but have recently started using tinyurl.com to stop long urls wrapping and breaking in the e-mail client.
posted by Jeff Howard at 11:17 PM on January 12, 2005

For major sites I trust, I sometimes use their email feature. More often than not I cut n paste because I want to add my own comments (or sometimes I'm sending several links in one message).
posted by dbh at 11:55 PM on January 12, 2005

I usually bookmark a site and give the bookmark in IM unless I haven't seen the person I want to give the URL to in a few days, then I'll paste into an email. I haven't used the 'send spam to your friends' feature in years.
posted by kamylyon at 1:08 AM on January 13, 2005

I have that feature on my site and every post generated on it. Emails are not stored in any way, because a) I think people are much like you & me and would rather not give out theirs or their pals emails b) It would waste a huge amount of space in my database for data I don't much care for anyway. But I keep it there so it's easy for the non copy-paste crowd. :)
posted by dabitch at 8:08 AM on January 13, 2005

I must be missing something...why would anyone use a separate "email to a friend" link, when they can just hit File/Send LinK? I don't get it.
posted by rushmc at 9:07 AM on January 13, 2005

FWIW: File >> Send Link doesn't work in (my) Firefox when using Gmail/Gnotify. Perhaps there's a plugin or something.
posted by Hankins at 9:47 AM on January 13, 2005

I confess to having several web sites with that feature, and though the program does indeed capture the email addresses, I don't have a mailing list to take advantage of them, nor do I sell said addresses to spammers. I use it only to tell what pages people are particularly interested in, and what they're saying about them in the optional comment box. Voyeuristic, yes, but I know better than to use the email addresses for evil.
posted by Soliloquy at 10:00 AM on January 13, 2005

I build websites for a living and none of my clients (mid to high range business) have asked to retain the email addresses for the "Send to a Friend". Sometimes, we'll code in a reporting tool that shows how many times and when a page has been sent using the function (to check against ad campaigns), but we don't bother to capture anything else.

And if a client would ask to retain the info, we'd refuse without a privacy policy and double-opt-in on the user's side. We've also fired clients for delving into spamming, but I'm sure there are enough fly-by-night webshops around that will pick up such scum.

I myself tend to cut-and-paste links and send via IM.
posted by Sangre Azul at 12:31 PM on January 13, 2005

File >> Send Link doesn't work in (my) Firefox when using Gmail/Gnotify.

Ah, good point. I forget that some people use webmail as their primary email account.
posted by rushmc at 1:20 PM on January 13, 2005