Glue – Adaptive Blue’s Product-Based Social Network

Glue is Adaptive Blue‘s Firefox Add-on that builds social networking into the internet at large, rather than into one particular stop. Connecting through products, Glue is a bar that will appear whenever you browse to product pages (movies, books, restaurants, albums, etc.) on a wide variety of websites (Amazon, Netflix, Best Buy, Zagat, and on and on).

Once the bar appears, you can click a heart if it’s something you like, attach your own comment to it via 2 cents, and see which of your friends have given their opinion. You can also just explore people who have recently been to the product, and perhaps find some new people to follow/friend.

I’ve actually covered Glue before, but there have been some updates, more people are using it (adding greatly to its usefulness), and I’ve also had a chance to use the iPhone App quite a bit.

Some of the more interesting updates, are the ability to respond to other people’s 2 cents, thereby moving things more toward conversation, and the ability to post your 2 cents to other social services like Twitter and Facebook. The iPhone App allows you to browse popular choices from any Glue categories, or browse through your friends picks.

The original functionality of the browser version is both wonderfully simple, and surprisingly useful, but having the iPhone App as well is a powerful combination. Where Glue kicks in for me in general is usually when I’m doing something like looking through Amazon or Netflix recommendations. Thanks for this book suggestion Amazon, but I’ve never heard of it. Now, I can look through the description, and see a few reviews, but with Glue I can instantly see what my friends and/or people with tastes I know I trust have to say. That’s a simple-to-use tool that adds a lot of power to the internet. Add the iPhone App, and you not only get that same sort of advice when you’re just walking around the book store, but you get a lot more as well. Suppose you’re in the book store, video store, or wherever, and just want some suggestions… well, just give your friends a quick browse. And, you can do the same for music, wine, restaurants, and more.

The best thing about the whole affair is that everything is just so simple. Once you install Glue, that’s all you do. When you visit a product Glue recognizes, it will just appear. You see the toolbar in the picture above, and you either do something with that, or you don’t. Just move through the toolbar and easily see what your friends or others have said, rate it, add your quick 2 cents, or go more advanced and email someone or Twitter your reaction.

Keep in mind also that you can just click the little Glue icon, which will be in the upper right corner of Firefox, and perform a variety of tasks. You can perform actions for particular pages you’re on even if the Glue bar doesn’t open. Like, Twittering about the page through Glue, viewing the Technorati profile if it’s a blog (like this), and a variety of other things. Also through that Glue icon you can jump straight to things that are popular with friends, or generally popular on the web.

Give it a spin and see where it leads you. I’m pretty confident that once you try it out you won’t want to give it up. Everything about online shopping with the added benefit of instant recommendations and feedback from your own social network… how can you go wrong?

glueshirt

Now, here’s the special prize. Glue has a limited-edition run of T-shirts, and everyone who leaves a comment here is entered to win one. It’s the light blue one in the middle. A winner will be chosen on March 15th.

Here’s a quick video that shows how things function.

Glue Overview from AdaptiveBlue on Vimeo.