- What does Curate.us do?
- How do I get Curate.us?
- Do I need to create an account to use Curate.us?
- What kind of websites and web pages can I clip with Curate.Us?
- How do I make a clip with Curate.Us?
- How do I make a quote with Curate.us?
- How do I embed and format clips and quotes in my blog or website?
- How do I resize a clip?
- Can I reformat a Curate.Us quote?
- Can I clip or quote photographs or other types of images?
- Is there a limit to how much text I can quote with Curate.Us?
- Can I choose which part of a web page gets clipped?
- Does using Curate.us violate any copyright laws?
- Can someone use Curate.Us to access personal or private information?
- How long is a clip stored?
- If the original site changes, does my clip change?
- How often are clips updated?
- Does Curate.Us work with social media sites like Facebook and Twitter?
- What is a Curate.us-enabled site?
- What kind of data does Curate.Us compile about websites and pages?
- When I paste the embed code into an email, I only see the embed code. How can I make clips and quotes appear in my email?
- Why do some of my clips show only advertisements or appear grayed out?
- When clipping new content on previously clipped pages, I only see the old clip. How do I update a clip to show new content?
- What do the Curate.Us stats mean?
- How do I Curate.Us–enable my website or blog?
- Can I add my own notes or commentary to a clip?
- How do I see analytic data for a clip or site?
What does Curate.us do?
Curate.Us allows you to make both visual clips and formatted quotes from web content that you can post on your blog or web site. Clips are screenshots that provide both back links and trackbacks to the original source. Quotes made with Curate.Us extract relevant passages from any web content, format them, and also provide both back links and trackbacks to the original source. Curate.Us also creates short links that are easy to tweet and email.
How do I get Curate.us?
Simply drag the “Clip with Curate.Us” link in the upper right-hand corner of this page to the link bar of the following browsers: Firefox, Safari, and Chrome. If you use Internet Explorer, just add the ” Curate.Us accelerator” to add Curate.Us to your right-click menu. That’s it. Now you’re ready to create clips and quotes of almost any public web site or page.
Do I need to create an account to use Curate.us?
No, but if you want to keep track of all the clips and quotes you’ve made, then you must create an account. Creating an account is fast, easy, and free, and it does not require any personal information other than a user name, a password, and a valid email address. Account holders can also add a “Clip this story” button to their web content, which gives you access to trackbacks and other vital statistics to know the contexts in which your content is being used. However, if you just want to create clips and quotes without any of these additional Curate.Us features, you can do so without an account.
What kind of websites and web pages can I clip with Curate.Us?
You can clip any public website or web page with Curate.Us. Clicking on a clip will bring you back to the original source of the clip. Your clip will show the format and content of the site or page at the time you created the clip. If the site or page you clipped is no longer available, your clip will be a permanent record of that content.
How do I make a clip with Curate.Us?
When you find a web page that you’d like to clip, just click the “Clip with Curate.Us” link in your browser toolbar (Firefox, Safari, Chrome) or right-click and select “Clip with Curate.Us” (IE8). As Curate.Us makes your clip, you’ll be given an embed code as well as a short link to the page. Once Curate.Us has created your clip, you’ll see it pictured along with various formatting options. You can change the clip view of the page by dragging the red frame on the left-hand side of your screen to the point on the web page that you want visible in the clip. You can also change the dimensions and alignment of the clip. To embed the clip, simply copy and paste the embed code wherever you would like to post it.
How do I make a quote with Curate.us?
If you find a passage on a web page that you’d like to quote, just select the text and click the “Curate.Us” link on your browser menu bar toolbar (Firefox, Safari, Chrome) or right-click and select “Clip with Curate.Us” (IE8). Once Curate.Us creates your quote, you will see it displayed on a Curate.Us page along with the embed code. You change the font size, page width, and alignment of the quote. To embed the quote, simply copy and paste the embed code anywhere that you want to display it.
How do I embed and format clips and quotes in my blog or website?
You can resize the clips and choose whether to have them centered or floated left or right according to your needs. You can also choose which portion of a web page will be visible in your clip by dragging on the red frame on the left-hand side of your screen. Whatever appears in the red frame will appear in your clip. Then just copy and paste the embed code into a plain text editor just like you would do with a video embed code.
How do I resize a clip?
Clips are automatically generated at their maximum size. You can make the visual clip smaller by clicking on the red arrows in the lower right corner of the clip and dragging the mouse toward the center of the clip. Regardless of the size you choose, visual clips will always maintain the same proportions. You cannot make a visual clip larger than the size generated by Curate.us.
Can I reformat a Curate.Us quote?
Yes. You can adjust both the font size and how much of the page width the quote will take up. You can also choose whether the quote will be centered or floated left or right on your page. The available formatting options are located below the embed code. As you select the various options, you can see how your quote will look. Once you’ve finished formatting your quote, copy and paste the embed code into your blog or website.
Can I clip or quote photographs or other types of images?
No. You can only use Curate.Us on regular web sites and pages, although these may contain images.
Is there a limit to how much text I can quote with Curate.Us?
No. However, if you select 100 or more words from any web page to quote, you will see a message reminding you about fair use. Fair use is a doctrine of U.S. copyright law, which allows the legal, non-licensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material into another author’s work. How much of a text may be legally quoted under the doctrine of fair use will depend on a number of factors and tests that will vary from case to case and jurisdiction to jurisdiction. It is up to you to use quotes and clips responsibly. We suggest you err on the side of caution whenever quoting somebody else’s work.
Can I choose which part of a web page gets clipped?
Yes. Once you’ve generated your clip, you will see an image of the entire clipped web page on the left-hand side of your screen. A red frame indicates the part of the page that will be visible in the clip. To change the clip view, simply drag the red frame to the part of the page that you want visible in your clip.
Does using Curate.us violate any copyright laws?
Visual clips constitute transformative works for the purpose of criticism or recommendation and are, therefore, subject to the doctrine of fair use. Since we limit the size and resolution of clips, most of the content in a visual clip is unreadable. In order to read or clearly view clipped content, you need to click on the clip, which will bring you to the original source. However, it is up to you to ensure that your specific use of clips complies with the law.
Can someone use Curate.Us to access personal or private information?
No. Whenever someone creates a clip, our servers query the original source of the clip. If the page you are trying to clip or quote is password protected or located behind a firewall, our servers will not be able to access it to make a clip. However, just as anybody who has access may cut and paste text from a private page, Curate.Us may be used to quote private text. Our system will warn you when you do this.
How long is a clip stored?
Forever.
If the original site changes, does my clip change?
No. Curate.Us maintains your clip and all prior and subsequent clips of a site to form a permanent record of website changes over time.
How often are clips updated?
Clips are updated when a user requests a new or updated clip. For popular sites, like major newspapers, clips will be updated frequently. Sites with less traffic will be updated less frequently. For sites that use the “Clip this story” button, clipped content will be automatically updated when new pages are published.
Does Curate.Us work with social media sites like Facebook and Twitter?
You can log into Curate.Us using your Facebook username and password through Facebook Connect buttons. Sites that are Curate.Us enabled will have a Facebook recommend button that will post a clip on your Facebook wall along with any commentary you’d like to add. We are also developing a Curate.Us Facebook app, which will be available soon. The short links created by Curate.Us can be used with Twitter.
What is a Curate.us-enabled site?
A Curate.Us-enabled site includes “Clip this story” and Facebook recommend buttons on its pages. These buttons allow readers who have not installed our toolbar widget to clip and quote content straight from the content page. Pages with “Clip this story” buttons are automatically clipped by our system whenever they change, creating a complete, permanent site archive.
What kind of data does Curate.Us compile about websites and pages?
Curate.Us records how often clips and quotes are viewed and which sites they are posted on. We eliminate sites that are password protected or behind firewalls from the detailed, publically available statistics in order to protect the privacy of our users.
When I paste the embed code into an email, I only see the embed code. How can I make clips and quotes appear in my email?
If you just highlight and copy the embed code and then paste it into an email message, your browser will only copy the text of the code. However, if you click the “Copy to clipboard” button on the Curate.Us page, both text and rich text versions are copied to your clipboard. When you paste the rich text into your email, you will see your formatted clip or quote. Please note that your email program must accept rich text in order to send clips and quotes. Apple Mail, Thunderbird and most web mail programs like Gmail and Yahoo mail accept rich text, but Outlook and Entourage do not. If your email doesn’t accept rich text, then we suggest sending the shortened link that Curate.Us automatically generates with every clip and quote.
Why do some of my clips show only advertisements or appear grayed out?
When you make a clip, the Curate.Us servers query the website. If there are pop-up or interstitial advertisements on the site, Curate.Us will capture these in your clip. Unfortunately, there is no way to avoid this issue. Also, if the site you are trying to clip is experiencing a high volume of traffic, Curate.Us may be unable to render the requested clip at that time. If this happens, we suggest that you try making the clip again later.
When clipping new content on previously clipped pages, I only see the old clip. How do I update a clip to show new content?
Some web pages, like the main or home page of an online newspaper, will update their content frequently. In order to update your clip, click the “Refresh this clip” button in the lower right-hand corner of the clip-formatting page. You can refresh a clip every ten minutes.
What do the Curate.Us stats mean?
The stats on the Curate.Us site show the number of clips and quotes created, how many times those clips and quotes have been viewed in the context where they have been posted, and how many times someone has clicked on the clips and quotes to view the content on the original site. We also provide the click-through rate as a percentage, which is generally more than 5 times the industry average.
How do I Curate.Us–enable my website or blog?
Enabling Curate.Us on your blog or website is fast, easy, and free. First you have to register on the Curate.Us website. Once you have completed the registration, the Curate.Us site will give you a simple line of code to add to your site. This code will add the “Clip this story” and Facebook recommend buttons to your site and allow Curate.Us to archive all of your content as it is viewed, clipped, and quoted.
Can I add my own notes or commentary to a clip?
Yes. When you create a clip, a formatting toolbar appears below the clip you’ve just made. At the far right end of the toolbar is the note function. When you click on the note icon, a yellow sticky note appears in the upper-right-hand corner of your clip. The default text on the yellow sticky note is the title of the page. You can change the text by deleting the text in the small window that opens to the right of the note button on the formatting toolbar and replacing it with your own notes or commentary. You can place the yellow sticky note anywhere on the clip by dragging the note to the desired position.
How do I see analytic data for a clip or site?
If you wish to see the analytic data for a clip, simply go back to the clip customization page and click on the “page stats” tab. For the analytic data of an entire domain, click on the “site stats” tab. You can also change the date range by clicking on the date in the top and changing the range.