One of Web Services very own, Joe Lencioni, recently had a pet project featured on prominent technology news site, Digg. Joe created a hybrid Greasemonkey/Creammonkey user script based on Lightbox JS by Lokesh Dhakar and Flickrbox by Gavin Montague. Dubbed “Greased Lightbox,” (originally mentioned here) the script changes the way people view images on popular sites like Google and Flickr.
When viewing image thumbnails, visitors typically must click through to see a larger image, then return to the previous page for more thumbnails. With “Greased Lightbox,” a viewer clicks a thumbnail and the larger version is displayed in the browser window, without leaving the current page.
The inherent efficiency of the script has proven popular. Receiving more than 1,900 “diggs,” it was quickly propelled to the front page of Digg, one of the top 500 most highly-trafficked sites in the world, and is currently one of the top stories of the month. The script has also made the rounds in the blogosphere, causing a stir even amongst developers of the new social-oriented browser, Flock.
While the news is good for Joe, it’s great for Gustavus. Having such talented individuals working for the College can only be beneficial. After all, much of the same technology has already been implemented on the Gustavus website, making it a showcase for innovation on the web.
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