Our readers are connecting on a variety of platforms across the Web. Whether you create a profile for every site or like to stick to a couple of favorites, we want you to be able to share Mashable stories in whichever way works best for you.
Here's a look at how we've integrated new sharing options for LinkedIn, Facebook and Tumblr.
LinkedIn From Follow's M Share
As LinkedIn takes off as a way to share news, we’re excited to further integrate it into Mashable Follow, our social sharing and content curation platform. You've been able to add LinkedIn to your Follow profile from day one, but now you can also share a post to LinkedIn directly from the M Share button.
Earlier this year, LinkedIn relaunched its developer platform complete with an open set of APIs and an eye on usability for developers. Specifically, LinkedIn’s adoption of OAuth made it possible to do this integration. “We are able to authenticate users using our existing OAuth support framework,” says Chris Heald, Follow's lead developer. “Once users are authenticated, we can use their authorization tokens to make calls to the LinkedIn API to easily conduct the shares.”
Adding third-party functions to a site can sometimes affect load times -- so we’ve made several performance optimizations to ensure that these new sharing tools won't slow you down.
Facebook Send
We’ve also integrated the new Facebook Send button into article pages across the site. It has a similar look and feel to the “Like” button, but functions more like email. The idea is to make sharing Mashable stories with a small group of friends easier.
The Send button appears next to the Like button, which is above the article and below the byline on Mashable story pages. Click on Send and a pop-up appears, allowing you to send that article to Facebook friends and Groups -- or to any email address. You can then add a message and send the page to friends’ inboxes or post it to a Group wall.
Tumblr Button
Because Tumblr’s API doesn’t provide share data, this can’t be integrated into Follow, so you’ll have to be signed out of our service to use this function. However, we can hope that Tumblr will see how popular this is and make the same kind of revision to their platform that LinkedIn did.