Since AdaptiveBlue is sponsoring the February giveaway for the Dewey Decimal Challenge and will be giving extra entries to people who join Glue, here’s Laura from AdaptiveBlue with the who, what why on Glue: what it is, how it works, and why it’s catching on around the blogosphere. Stayed tuned to the end of the post to learn more about the giveaway.
Glue is a Firefox add-on that connects you to friends around the web. As you visit everyday topics, such as books, music, and movies on popular sites, Glue appears automatically to show you friends who looked at the same thing, if they liked it, and even their opinion.
Everyone has their favorite book site, but this isn’t a problem for Glue. If both Nari and I were interested in Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, and she visited the book on Amazon, and I looked at it on Barnes and Nobles, we are still connected. Glue pulls people together across these diverse websites and pages to connect them around the common thing: an interest in the same book.
You might be confused reading this, but as Wired has said, “using [Glue] is actually much simpler than describing what it does.” Wired also said the Glue is “the single most useful social networking tool I’ve encountered”
So let me show you what I mean.
Glue appears automatically at the top of the page to show other friends who have interacted with the same book around the web. With a single click you can let your friends know that you like the book. You can even leave a short “2Cent” comment which will appear whenever a friend looks at that book, no matter what site they are on.
Instantly I am able to see that Nari likes this book. It’s worth pointing out again that Nari appears on this Barnes and Nobles page even though she visited the book on Amazon. It also shows other friends who looked at the book, along with other interesting people. When I scroll over Nari’s avatar, I can see her “2Cent” comment, letting me know her thoughts on this book. Some book bloggers like to put a link to their review on a book in 2Cents. This is extremely useful since their reviews can be available anytime anyone visits that book, on any site!
By clicking on your friends’ profiles you can also see what other books they enjoy. This is all without navigating away from the page you are on.
A concern might be, “What if I’m looking at items I don’t want friends to see?” For example, if you are shopping for a gift. All you have to do is scroll over your picture, and delete that book from your history.
You can watch a short video on http://getglue.com/ to get a better understanding of Glue
The web is filled with noise, and Glue is able to pull relevant information exactly when and where you need it.
For questions about Glue please email us or Twitter: @adaptiveblue.
The giveaway: Everyone who posts a comment to a specified post with their review will be entered to win a book of their choice from Amazon. Its a great prize!
I’m still experimenting with Glue, but its a pretty cool widget. What do you guys think? What sorts of cool online networking tools do you use?
