Frequently Asked Questions

General

• What is Apture?

  Apture is a service that allows bloggers and publishers to layer in nearly all media from across the web into their sites with one click. By transforming flat web pages into connected multimedia experiences readers can fluidly dive into related information without losing their place on the page so they can see, hear and truly experience the ideas on the page.

• How does Apture work?

  With a simple plugin, Apture easily integrates into the editing environments of many publishing platforms, including most major blogging platforms. The Apture “super” link button essentially replaces the standard “link” button and opens the door to an entire library of content in the Apture Media Hub that can be linked or embedded into the page with just one click. When readers comes to your website, Apture’s script displays the links on your page in the Apture “power browser” so all readers can explore your linked content in Apture’s dynamic JavaScript-based windows without leaving your site.

• Why should I use Apture?

  Web users today demand more than today’s “flat” pages. Users’ attention are shifting to sites that fulfill their curiosities with engaging, media-rich experiences. Apture makes it easy to bring your website to life by quickly integrating rich media from all around the web, so your readers can see, hear, feel and understand the topics you write about. Finally, Apture keeps visitors on your site and increases the amount of time people spend there, by allowing users to browse content without leaving the page.

• How much does Apture cost?

  If you are a blog or website with less than five million page views per month, then Apture is free! If you have a website with more than five million page views per month, you should contact us, but you’re welcome to try it out on your own test site while you’re waiting to hear back from us.

• What is Apture’s business model?

  Publishers pay Apture monthly subscription fees for premium features, integration of custom content sources, customizations, and priority support, while the basic blogger version is free. We also have revenue-sharing relationships to split revenue with large publishers that derive extra advertising revenue (from video pre-rolls, for example) or page views through Apture’s technology. Currently, Apture has relationships with some of the web’ largest global publishing brands including the BBC, Washington Post, SFGate, and the New York Times. If you are interested in our paid publisher services, please contact us

Product

• Can I use Apture before I publish posts?

  Yes. Apture integrates into the editing environments of most blogging platforms, essentially replacing the standard “link” button. Using Apture in your editing environment encodes your links into the html of your page so they are visible in RSS feeds and help to improve your sites search engine ranking (SEO).

• Will Apture slow down how fast my pages load?

  Nope. Because Apture’s script tag is at the bottom of the page, it will load after your page content loads. This means that all the text, images, content, etc of your page will load at the same speed with or without Apture For the fastest performance, please place your Apture script tag at the end of your page body, but before advertising tags and other script tags, otherwise Apture links will not appear until ads and other scripts have loaded.

  For the more technical folks out there, Apture loads two scripts. One is only a few kilobytes, and the other is about 33kb but is only downloaded once by your visitors. If you are reading this page now, it probably means you've already downloaded the script and will never have to download it again. Even better, because Apture works with many large publishers on the Internet like the washingtonpost.com and nytimes.com chances are that a visitor has been to one of our partner’ web sites, so they won’t need to spend any extra time downloading this script when they first come to your site.

• How safe and secure is Apture?

  We use state-of-the-art security technologies and strategies to make sure only authorized users can add links to your pages. Our software has been vetted by the IT and Security teams of our largest publishing partners.

• How does Apture impact SEO?

  Apture links act like ordinary links. If you are using Apture in your editing environment the links are stored on your servers or baked into the HTML of your site. Apture can currently be used within the editing environments of many publishing platforms and most major blog platforms such as TypePad, Wordpress.org, MoveableType, Blogger, and many others. Visit our download page to see if Apture can be used in the editing environment of your platform. If you are using a publishing platform without editing environment support you can still use Apture by adding links to the live page, however, these live page links are not recognized by search engines.

• Can Apture links be viewed by RSS readers?

  Yes. If you are using Apture to create links within your editing environment they are included in the HTML of your site and are available when syndicated via RSS. Visit our download page to see if Apture can be used in your editing environment. If you are using a publishing platform without editing environment support you can still use Apture by adding links to the live page, however, these live page links cannot be viewed by RSS readers.

• Are Apture “power” browser windows blocked by popup blockers?

  Nope! Apture’s windows are filled with content, not advertisements and are designed to complement the content on the page. They do not use traditional pop-up technology and are not filled with traditional pop-up advertisements…

• Does Apture work behind firewalls or intranets or on password-protected sites?

  Yes. As long as you have access to add Apture links from within your platform’s editing environment all visitors to your site will be able to view your Apture “super” links. Visit our download page to see if Apture can be used in your editing environment. For users who are using a publishing platform without editing environment support you can use Apture by adding links to the live page, however, only if you can disable your fromirewall or your site’s password-protection.

• Can I customize the sources in the Media Hub?

  We do not currently support customized content sources in the Media Hub for free users, however, you can upload any of your own content and you can link to content via url or embed code. In addition we are adding new content sources all the time. If you don’t see what you are looking for please let us know at support@apture.com. We love to hear from our users and are working around the clock to make the Apture Media Hub as useful as possible. We do support customized content sources for some of our largest customers so they can link to in-house content in addition to Apture’s third party sources..

• Can I link and upload my own content?

  You can link and upload any content you like! Apture offer’ the Media Hub search so you can conveniently point and click on the media you wish to link (and avoid technical mumbo-jumbo like URL addresses or messy embed codes). But if you wish to link or embed your own media, use the Link and Upload tabs, available in the top-right hand corner the Media Hub..

• I can install Apture on my Wordpress.org blog, but can I install Apture on my hosted WordPress.com blog?

  Unfortunately not, but this isn’t our fault! WordPress.com restricts you from installing third party scripts or applications. If you'd like WordPress to change that, please let them know how much you want Apture :)

• I keep getting the error: “Apture is unable to display the new link automatically…” or “Error updating page. Try closing other browser windows…” what’s going on?

  This error may occur when using Apture on Macintosh computers running Safari 2 or 3, or Firefox 2 when you have more than one browser window logged into Apture’s Editor Dashboard. If this happens, just hit the Refresh button on your browser to refresh the page. Unfortunately, this is due to a limitation in Adobe Flash on Mac OS X and we are trying to contact their engineers to solve the problem. If you continue to have a problem, it usually helps to close other browser windows or restart your browser.

  We recommend upgrading to Firefox 3 and Safari 4 which work around this issue and also generally offer improved performance, especially in the Apture Editor.

  This error may also occur in Google Chrome when multiple tabs or windows are open at the same time. This is due to a bug in Google Chrome and we are trying to contact their engineers to solve the problem.

• Can I allow multiple editors to edit links on my site?

  Yes, just click on "Site Editors" in the Apture Dashboard to invite other editors by email address. They can then login to your site and add links to any published page on your website using the “live” editor. You can also login to your Site Settings from the My Sites page, click on your site, and then click “Editors” in the right hand sidebar.

• Can I set links to open on click instead of mouse-over?

  Yes, every user can decide how they want this to work. Click on the [?] box at the bottom-right corner of any Apture window to bring up Apture’s preferences. Change the Apture windows open setting to click-only and click Save. This is currently a user-only setting.

• Is Apture Section 508 Compliant?

  Apture meets all the requirements for Government Section 508, accessibility standards.

  The standards provide criteria specific to various types of technologies, including:

  • software applications and operating systems
  • web-based information or applications
  • telecommunication products
  • video and multimedia products
  • self contained, closed products (e.g., information kiosks, calculators, and fax machines)
  • desktop and portable computers

  Web-based Intranet and Internet Information and Applications

  The criteria for web-based technology and information are based on access guidelines developed by the Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium. Many of these provisions ensure access for people with vision impairments who rely on various assistive products to access computer-based information, such as screen readers, which translate what’ on a computer screen into automated audible output, and refreshable Braille displays. Certain conventions, such as verbal tags or identification of graphics and format devices, like frames, are necessary so that these devices can "read" them for the user in a sensible way. The standards do not prohibit the use of web site graphics or animation. Instead, the standards aim to ensure that such information is also available in an accessible format. Generally, this means use of text labels or descriptors for graphics and certain format elements. (HTML code already provides an "Alt Text" tag for graphics which can serve as a verbal descriptor for graphics). This section also addresses the usability of multimedia presentations, image maps, style sheets, scripting languages, applets and plugins, and electronic forms.

  The standards apply to Federal web sites but not to private sector web sites (unless a site is provided under contract to a Federal agency, in which case only that web site or portion covered by the contract would have to comply). Accessible sites offer significant advantages that go beyond access. For example, those with "text-only" options provide a faster downloading alternative and can facilitate transmission of web-based data to cell phones and personal digital assistants.

• I can’t find an answer here, where else can I look?

  Visit Apture’s dedicated Community Support site where you can ask questions and get answers from the Apture team as well as other Apture users. You can also contact us directly on Twitter. If you have additional feedback, you can email support AT apture DOT com.

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