Guest Post: Laura talks about Glue

Since AdaptiveBlue is sponsoring the February giveaway and will be giving extra entries to people who join Glue, here's Laura from AdaptiveBlue with the skinny on Glue: what it is, how it works, and why it's catching on around the blogosphere.

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 Ali and I were interested in The School Of Essential Ingredients , and she visited the book on LibraryThing, and I looked at it on Amazon, 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. (Note from Ali: You can see the image nice and big if you click on it)



Instantly I am able to see that Ali likes this book. It's worth pointing out again that Ali appears on this Amazon page even though she visited the book on LibraryThing. It also shows other friends who looked at the book, along with other interesting people. When I scroll over Ali's avatar, I can see her "2Cent" comment, which is a link to her blog post. This is extremely useful to book bloggers 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.

This short video may give a better understanding of Glue:


Glue Overview from AdaptiveBlue on Vimeo

The web is filled with noise, and Glue is able to pull relevant information exactly when and where you need it. As of now Glue is only available on Firefox, but we will be up on IE in the next couple of months. On that note, Mozilla is a great browser so you should check it out :)

Thanks, Laura!

So, is this something that you can see fitting into your current online routine? What social networks do you use already, and how do they rate, in your book: amazing community-builders, or

Questions about Glue? Email them or Twitter: @adaptiveblue.