by Michelle Lentz

Sometimes I need to be reminded that not every startup is in California. ShareThis launched last November (less than a year ago!) from their Cincinnati offices. Today they invited me to see their newly upgraded location and learn about some great things on the horizon.

If you recall, I first wrote about ShareThis back in early June. Back then, CEO Tim Schigel told me that as far as sharing goes, email trumps all. I’ve always had a hard time believing this, but this time around, they had cold, hard facts. In fact, Forrester completed a study for them on electronic sharing and indeed, almost 70% of adults share information (links, cool things) using cut and paste into email. I haven’t had time to peruse the entire report yet, but suspect it will be loaded with interesting tidbits. I promise to share them here once I plow through the report.

Of course, the proof is also in the pudding, as ShareThis is now on upwards of 60,000 sites and they’re adding more at an average rate of 1500 per week. Not bad for a company not quite 11 mos old. They’ve been able to move to a trendy building (a refurbished old school), hire some new folks away from some big companies, and have even bigger plans on the horizon.

For the user, the changes are going to be apparent soon – in fact, a beta starts in October. The back-end changes include speeding up the system. There will no longer be a delay when you click on that ubiquitous green icon. It will instantly appear. They’ve also modified the box so that there will no longer be tabs.

Instead, you have all of your options on one screen.  The Send line even includes shortcuts for the last person to whom you sent something. A lot of power lies in the Post area, where you can post the same item out to Digg, Delicious, your blog, and more without ever leaving the page. If you use a service not originally listed on the front panel (in the image above, I might select WordPress, which is not shown), then WordPress would be front and center the next time I use ShareThis. It learns your sharing preferences as you go.

Personally, I also like the idea of customizing the box with my own logo (your logo here), which every blogger will appreciate. (Branding, branding, branding!)

The Sharebox page, located on the ShareThis web site, has proven to be immensely popular. Everything you’ve shared is located in your Sharebox. The truly nifty thing is the ability to mark things with different levels of privacy – share with everyone, share with specific groups, private, and so forth. After all, maybe you don’t want the whole world to see the new flooring you picked out for your house. In a way, the Sharebox can be used like Delicious, as an online social bookmarking tool. However, since you can share things out from the Sharebox to any of the other sites, including Delicious, it takes social bookmarking a step further.

I’m sure you’ve seen that little green box around the Web. I’ve found it on magazine sites like Elle, on news sites such as the Boston Globe, and even on television sites such as ABC Family. ShareThis is expecting over half a million registered users by the end of the year.

In theory, I’ll be part of the beta when it launches in October. I’ll keep you posted on how things are working and what I think of the new design once it’s in use. Oh, and I’m aware that we’re not yet using ShareThis on bub.blicio.us. I need to get on the tech folks. Brian is using it on PR 2.0 though.

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Contact Michelle with your news, apps, and events via email, Twitter, Pownce, or FriendFeed. Visit Michelle at Wine-Girl.net and Write Technology. You can also catch Michelle presenting on Twitter at the upcoming DevLearn ‘08 in San Jose.