web actions

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A web action is the interface and user experience of taking a specific discrete action, across the web, from one site to another site or application.

- Web Actions: Identifying A New Building Block For The Web

I've introduced the concept of "web actions" to both capture the emergence of this new type of web interaction (e.g. the spread of "Blog this, Digg, Read later, Follow, Like, Share, Tweet, +1" buttons across pages as noted in the blog post, and as a user-centric reframing of the previous developer-centric notion of "web intents". Discussions and a UX effort at IndieWebCamp 2011 demonstrated that "web intents" was both too confusing and too abstract of a term to effectively do user centered research and design in the area. I came up with "web action" based on the fact that from the user's perspective, they think they are taking an action when they click these buttons. I tried out the term with others creating designs/UX in the space and it seemed to work much better to convey understanding. - Tantek