I was listening to a LensWork podcast #383: Bumper Sticker Depth tonight and realized that the FocalPower Quote Archive could be judged in this fashion. In this podcast, Brooks Jensen talked about how snippets of information have started to replace the in depth information of the past. I personally agree with his notion.
It was just such a notion that caused us at FocalPower to build our Quote Archive in such a fashion as to provide more information about the people behind the quotes. Every quote that is delivered via the Random Quote Widget has a link built into the author so that if the reader finds that quote interesting, they can follow the link to get more information. Most of the time, this link will take the reader to a Wikipedia entry on the person behind the quote. Wikipedia has a great number of entries on famous and well known photographers. Granted, the information may not be exhaustively complete (and we are always on the lookout for personal essays), but there are other sources that can be followed up on at the bottom of most entries. There are occasions when the quote is from a contemporary photographer and the link takes you to that photographer’s website. This usually means that there is no Wikipedia entry available.
The good news for the Quote Widget users is that these links will open up in a new window, so that their website isn’t lost from the reader’s view. We feel this is a good balance between providing something useful to our users as well as to our user’s readers. After all, these quotes are more than just bumper stickers!
There have been a number of ideas bantered around on how we can improve this aspect of the Quote Widget. We always love to hear more. If you have a great idea, please drop on over to the forum and share!