Frequently Asked Questions

General

Accounts

Sharing

Flash, Widgets and other Embedded Content

Installation

Customization

Languages & Localization

Analytics

Browser Add-Ons & Toolbars

Other Troubleshooting Topics

General

Why not just make my own sharing tool?

AddThis does the heavy lifting for you — optimizing service selection, optimizing service icon sizes, maximizing speed while minimizing space, and providing industrial strength analytics. And with the AddThis Toolbox, you can completely customize your own sharing menu and still enjoy the benefits of using the AddThis platform.
Back to Top

Can you handle the traffic from my very popular web site?

Absolutely! We recently moved our infrastructure to Akamai, the leader in web application acceleration, performance management, and content delivery.
Back to Top

Can my company host the AddThis button code?

As a publisher, you are allowed to self host or cache the code for the AddThis button on your website in accordance with the following terms. In order to self host and/or cache the code:

  • you will create an AddThis account and we will provide you with a URL from which you may load the code (contact us here - please include your account username).
  • you will refresh the code on a regular basis (at least once every 24 hours) to allow us to provide updates and bug fixes.
  • you will not change, alter, or modify the code for the AddThis button in any way.
  • you will agree with our Terms of Service Code Caching Policy
Back to Top

What data does AddThis collect and why?

The following provides a general overview of our data collection and usage practices. For more information please see our Privacy Policy.

  • When a publisher registers with our service, we may collect personal, demographic and preference information, email address and other personally identifiable information. We do not share this personally identifiable information with third-parties (with limited exceptions like a court order).
  • End users are not required to register with our service in order to share content from a publisher’s site. When an end user uses our service on a publisher’s site, we only collect information which cannot be used to personally identify the end user. Such non-personal data may include aggregate, summary, or other usage data, statistics regarding total end users, information regarding types of Internet browsers, and usage patterns. We also collect non-personal data about an end user's IP address to help diagnose problems with our servers, and to administer our service.
  • We use flash and third-party "cookies" to get an accurate count of unique end users. No personally identifiable information is collected.
  • We use collected data to operate the sharing services. For example, an end user will provide us email addresses in order to "send to friend". We do not store or use those email addresses for any other purpose.
  • We use collected non-personally identifiable data for internal purposes to track usage patterns, unique users, total views, and other similar metrics. We also use collected data to diagnose problems or issues with our servers or third party services.
Back to Top

Accounts

Do I have to register?

No, but registered users have access to analytics for their sharing buttons, weekly analytics email reports, and other features.
Back to Top

What is my AddThis publisher ID or addthis_pub?

Your AddThis publisher ID or addthis_pub is the username that you use to log into AddThis. If you have forgotten your username, you can retrieve it by providing your email address.
Back to Top

I lost my username. What should I do?

No problem at all, just fill out our Forgot Your Username form and an email reminder will be sent to the email address with which you registered.
Back to Top

I lost my password. What should I do?

Just fill out our Forgot Your Password form and an email with a password reset link will be sent to the email address with which you registered.
Back to Top

Is there a way to change my username?

Not at this time. The simplest route is to create a new AddThis account.
Back to Top

Can I have more than one account?

Yes, you can create more than one account with the same email address; some users find this helpful to organize analytics data, or to manage AddThis implementations for others.
Back to Top

How do I delete my account?

We'd be sorry to see you go, but if you need to delete your AddThis account you may do so at any time.
Back to Top

Sharing

Why does the menu come up on hover versus on click?

Our research indicates that configuring the menu to appear on hover increases sharing by a factor of four, over the menu appearing on click. This feature is configurable, however we recommend that publishers retain the hover interaction.
Back to Top

Why is the AddThis menu loading a tiny Flash file?

The menu uses Flash to get an accurate count of unique users of your AddThis Menu for usage reporting. No personal information is collected.
Back to Top

Share via e-mail doesn't seem to work. What should I do?

The first thing we'd recommend doing is check to make sure the e-mail didn't go into your spam folder. If that's not the case, please drop us a line in our forum.
Back to Top

When I share via e-mail, the email says the sender's address hasn't been verified. What does that mean?

At this time, we don't have a way of verifying that the user who shares a Web page actually is that person.
Back to Top

Do you collect e-mail addresses when an item is shared via e-mail?

No, we don’t collect e-mails addresses, nor do we plan to. For more information, please refer to our Privacy Policy.
Back to Top

What steps do you take to prevent spam from being sent via AddThis?

We use a combination of techniques, such as automatic rate limiting based on factors such as who is sending the email, from where, to whom, and message content. We also have the ability to explicitly blacklist based on problematic senders, receivers, and content, if an issue is reported.
Back to Top

What do you mean in your Terms of Service when it says that you have the right to distribute my content?

We only distribute a URL link to the specific content chosen by an end user on which our bookmarking service is used, including a brief description. We don't access any other content. For more information, please refer to our Terms of Service.
Back to Top

Does AddThis work on mobile devices?

AddThis is designed to work on any mobile device that supports web browsing. The AddThis menu is optimized for browsers that support Javascript, but will also gracefully degrade to work on devices that do not.
Back to Top

How about the iPhone?

Absolutely. Like any other JavaScript enabled web browser, the AddThis menu will work on the iPhone. However, we developed a special interface for iPhones that is optimized for that device's form factor. This interface will automatically be presented if an AddThis button detects the iPhone's web browser.
Back to Top

Flash, Widgets and Other Embedded Content

Can I use AddThis to share more than just pages?

Absolutely, AddThis can be used to share Flash content, like video players and widgets, "embedded" in pages. Your visitors are always ultimately sharing a URL, which ensures that your content can go as many places as possible. For sites that support Flash widgets, however, AddThis will ALSO pass along the embedded content, letting your user share the widget. iGoogle and Facebook are examples of sites that support this, and Facebook's treatment of videos in news feeds is a good example. For more explanation, refer to Embedded Content sharing.
Back to Top

How do I share Flash widgets from an HTML page?

Setting up widget sharing is easy: you use our sharing tools just as you normally would, but you also to tell us the URL and preferred width and height of the SWF file. To do this, you just tag your page with Facebook-style meta tags. When AddThis shares your page to a supporting destination, that destination will read these tags and share your Flash object instead of just a link. If you don't control the page or can't add can't tags to it, you can also pass extra parameters to our APIs (though we recommend the tagging approach). For more information, please refer to Embedded Content Sharing.
Back to Top

How do I add AddThis sharing to a Flash website or widget?

From inside your Flash asset, you'll need to create buttons that invoke sharing to a given service such as Facebook and Twitter. Link these buttons to our sharing endpoints for each particular destination (described here). For example, the following link can share a YouTube player to Facebook:

http://api.addthis.com/oexchange/0.8/forward/facebook/offer?url=http://www.addthis.com
&title=Addthis%20Video
&swfurl=http://www.youtube.com/v/1F7DKyFt5pY&hl=en&fs=1
&screenshot=http://i2.ytimg.com/vi/1F7DKyFt5pY/default.jpg
&height=560
&width=340

We highly recommend pointing your URL to an HTML page containing meta tags that describe the Flash content, instead of just specifying it on the call; this is also a best practice for sites like Facebook, search engines, and more.

If you don't want to write the Flash code to do all of this, take a look at our Flash Example Code. We offer both a low-level sharing API as well as a full Flash-native sharing menu.

For more information, please refer to the documentation on Installing AddThis in Flash, the Sharing Endpoints, and the Sharing Embedded Content guide.


Back to Top

Do I have to code my own sharing menu or button for Flash?

We do have sample code to help you out. We offer both a low level ShareAPI class and SWF library that wraps the Sharing API, as well as a sharing menu user interface component. Take a look at the Flash Examples page for details and to get the code.


Back to Top

How do I pass configuration parameters to Flash?

To send configuration parameters to Flash, you will just need to pass the values in the SWF URL as a query string. For example:

myflash.swf?id=25&page=69&type=454

You access those values from flash like this:

var id = root.loaderInfo.parameters.id;
var page = root.loaderInfo.parameters.page;
var type = root.loaderInfo.parameters.type;

Whenever you reference the SWF, such as when sharing it via an API call, putting it as the value of a tag on your HTML page, just be sure to include the appropriate parameters there.

Back to Top



How do I avoid overlay issues with AddThis and Flash elements?

If you are having trouble with AddThis menus being obscured by Flash elements on your pages, please refer to the Flash Compatibility help topic.
Back to Top

AddThis Installation

How can I put AddThis in a WordPress.com blog?

You can install AddThis into the WordPress.com sidebar, and/or at the end of each post. More information and installation instructions >
Back to Top

What's the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com?

Read more about this topic at WordPress.com >
Back to Top

Can I put the same AddThis button on multiple domains and still get separate analytics?

Yes, you can absolutely put the same AddThis button on mutliple Web sites. In analytics, you'll be given the option of filtering the reports for specific domains.
Back to Top

How do I add the button to Microsoft Office Live?

  1. Create an AddThis account
  2. Copy the code below into Notepad: 
    
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0">
<xsl:output method="text" omit-xml-declaration="yes"/>
<xsl:template match="/Footer">
<![CDATA[
<!-- AddThis Bookmark Button BEGIN -->
<script type="text/javascript">
  addthis_url    = location.href;   
  addthis_title  = document.title;  
  addthis_pub    = 'YOUR-ACCOUNT-ID';     
</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/addthis_widget.php?v=12" ></script>
<!-- AddThis Bookmark Button END -->
]]>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
  3. Change "YOUR-ACCOUNT-ID" to the name of the AddThis account you created in step 1
  4. Make sure Advanced Design Tools are activated in MSOL
  5. Paste the code into the Custom Footer Module
Back to Top

How do I uninstall the AddThis Button?

If you've copied and pasted the code into your website, go back into the code and look for <!-- ADDTHIS BUTTON BEGIN --> and
<!-- ADDTHIS BUTTON BEGIN -->, then delete these lines and any code between them. If you've used another method to install AddThis on your page, please go to the forum and we'll be happy to help you.
Back to Top

Customization

Can I customize my sharing menu?

The AddThis menu has been designed to be as customizable as possible. You can configure the button, the look and feel of the sharing menu, the list of sharing services that appear in the initial compact menu, and much more. And now you can use the AddThis Toolbox to create your own menu and still receive analytics data.
Back to Top

Can I customize the services in the expandable menu?

The full A-Z list of services in the expanded menu cannot be customized, however you can exclude particular services by setting the JavaScript variable addthis_exclude to a comma-separated list; e.g., var addthis_exclude = 'print,twitter';
Back to Top

Can I make my own sharing menu using your tools?

Absolutely! With the AddThis Toolbox you can create your own menu and still receive analytics data. If you want to completely roll your own sharing on top of the AddThis backend, you can do that too.
Back to Top

Can I get a custom e-mail for sharing?

Yes! We recently introduced custom email templates, which allow you to customize the text-only and HTML emails that your visitors will send when they share your content. You can even create multiple templates for different sites or parts of the same site, and select which template should be your default.
Back to Top

How do I suggest a new service for AddThis?

If you would like to submit a service to be integrated with AddThis, you may do so by visiting the Service Directory and selecting Submit a Service. The service you submit will be reviewed, and, if you prefer, you can be contacted by the AddThis team if the service is approved.

Will you put advertising in the menu?

We do not currently put advertising in the menu, and have no plans to do so. We do, however, reserve the right to do so in the future.
Back to Top

Can I customize or brand the bigger extended menu?

No, we don’t support putting your logo in the expanded menu. It was a feature that we have since deprecated.
Back to Top

Can I remove the AddThis branding from the menu?

No, we don’t support removal of the AddThis branding from our menus.
Back to Top

Can I just use the AddThis backend platform by itself, without using the AddThis client-side menu?

If AddThis Toolbox really doesn't work for you, you can completely roll your own client and just use our backend to do the actual sharing. Check out the Sharing Endpoints.
Back to Top

Languages & Localization

What languages does AddThis support?

AddThis has been translated into over 50 languages, used by people all over the world. The AddThis Language Database includes a list of all supported languages, as well as options to submit a new language or help us improve a currently supported translation.
Back to Top

How does localization work?

Unless a publisher specifies otherwise, the ui_language parameter will automatically be assigned according to the locale of a user's browser, e.g. the Spanish version of Firefox. If that language is supported by AddThis, the user's menu should localize automatically. As a publisher, you can also override the language of your AddThis menu. For more information, please consult the language support and customization help page, which includes localized examples of buttons and button code.
Back to Top

I changed my browser preference to a different language, why isn't my menu translating?

Because AddThis menus are rendered client-side, Firefox cannot reliably localize based on a language chosen in browser preferences. Currently, this is only an issue with Firefox; client-side translation of AddThis menus works with Internet Explorer.
Back to Top

Can I use my own translations?

Yes, and it's easier than you might think! Check out Custom Translations.
Back to Top

How do I submit translations for a language you don't currently support?

If you'd like to contribute a language to the AddThis service, please visit the Language Database. Thank you in advance for helping us bring AddThis to more people all over the world!
Back to Top

Analytics

How long does it take for analytics to start showing up?

Analytics data should begin to be collected within an hour, assuming that sharing takes place on pages where the button has been installed. Note however that all reports by default show data from the last 30 days, which does not include today (a partial day).
Back to Top

If I have more then one AddThis button on a page, will that affect my analytics?

No, it won't affect your analytics. If you have installed your button on multiple domains, note that on every view except for the summary view, there is the ability to filter by domain name.
Back to Top

Can I reset my analytics?

Not at this time. You can create a new AddThis account and re-install the button; this will disregard and previously collected analytics data.
Back to Top

Can we integrate AddThis analytics into Google Analytics & Omniture?

At this time, no we don't support integrating our analytics with Google Analytics and Omniture. This is something that we plan on supporting in the near future.
Back to Top

Do shares from the AddThis Firefox Plug-in get included in my analytics report?

Yes, as long as there is an AddThis button on that page with a valid publisher ID.
Back to Top

Browser Add-Ons & Toolbars

How do I choose my favorite services in AddThis for Firefox or Internet Explorer?

You can personalize AddThis for Firefox or Internet Explorer to display your favorite services, in any order you like. Just select Options... > Sharing Services, pick which services you would like to see, and change the order of your list using the arrows on the far right side of the form.

In AddThis for Firefox, how do I hide the toolbar and just use the navigation button menu?

AddThis for Firefox provides several different ways to customize sharing in your browser. These include:

  • a sharing toolbar
  • the original navigation toolbar button menu
  • a context menu (right-click in any page to share), and
  • a URL bar icon menu

You can choose to display any or all of these menus by going to Options... (the "wrench" menu), choosing More Options and selecting which menus you would like to use.

Other Troubleshooting Topics

How do I specify which page image should be passed to Facebook?

For more information about specifying Facebook image handling, please refer to Facebook Images.
Back to Top

Does AddThis work with HTTPS/SSL?

For more information about using AddThis in a secure setting, please refer to HTTPS/SSL Support.
Back to Top

Does AddThis work with the file:// protocol?

No. The button must be rendered over HTTP or HTTPS.
Back to Top

Firefox sidebar behavior

If you use Firefox and bookmark a page with the AddThis button ('Favorites' option), when you later open that bookmark, the page opens in the sidebar instead of the main window. This is a known Firefox bug. Unfortunately we have no control over this behavior.
Back to Top