etailology

While most of us call them “doohickies” or “thingamabobs” a chicklet is a small graphic which ties to a larger web service. Examples include the “bookmark this” buttons and icons you see on sites, the Facebook “+Share” link embedded on pages, and small icons for Digg/Delicious/Sphere/etc. found all over the place.

What’s notable about a chicklet is it’s small size compared to its enormous functionality — they rely on memory and recognition to encourage the user to click on them… which means that a function cannot be “chicketized” unless it’s already reached enough critical mass to garner user recognition.

Chicklets are focused almost entirely around subscribing, sharing, sending, and bookmarking behavior. As such, their small size is convenient since prominent placement is key to encouraging the right usage by site visitors.

Strangely, I assume chicklets are named after the gum, but the gum is spelled “chiclet.”