Hovering

Keeping my mind focused is always a challenge!

I really enjoy the way the web allows us to share content and images are a key component of that.  Very often, to conserve space, people will allow the software that they use to resize an image so that it fits nicely in the space allotted.  Or, a service like Flickr or Facebook will create a collection of thumbnails to show a gallery on a screen or you do a search for images and a gallery of results is displayed or …  There are lots of ors when it comes to images and the web!  These smaller images or thumbnails are a handy way of keeping things neat and tidy.

When it comes time to see the real image, there are a number of ways to do this.  Sometimes clicking will open the larger image in a new tab/window or you can right-click to open the image in a new tab/window.

I’ll admit that this sometimes takes my mind into a different direction and I’ll forget all about the original page!  I’ve found the greatest extension for the Google Chrome browser to solve all my problems.  (Well, actually just this one but it’s one less from the big list of problems)

The extension is called Hover Free.  For me, it’s the perfect answer.

Neat and sweet, it just does one thing.  Move your cursor over an image on the screen and let it sit for a second.  The extension sends a request for the original image and displays it on the screen.

For example, yesterday Jaimie and the neighbour’s dog were over to get their Easter treat.  They had to “sit” and do the mandatory pose while I take a picture for this post.  I posted the image to Facebook where it appears as part of a gallery.

To see the original, I just hover over top of the thumbnail and the larger image is displayed.

To make the larger image go away, just move the cursor off the thumbnail.  It’s gone.

This has been a tremendous tool to let me enjoy the images and not lose focus on the original page.