I Love Glue, You Should Too (And Win!)

So I'd like to talk to you today about something that is not book or movie related. What's that? I actually have a life beyond books and movies? *gasp* Yes it's true. And guess what, I didn't even pick up a book at all yesterday! Or watch a movie! (I did watch Lost though, fantastic as always) But we're getting off the subject. Interestingly though, this topic is somehow connected to books and movies and is the reason why I'm talking about it today. (Plus there's a giveaway at the end of this post....no do NOT scroll down first!!)

I'd like to talk about Glue with you. No, not the stuff that comes in a bottle. I'm talking about Adaptive Blue's free browser add-on that automatically connects you with friends around things you visit.

From the website:

Glue is a contextual network that uses semantic technology to automatically connect people around everyday things - books, music, movies, stars, artists, stocks, wine, restaurants and more.

Glue appears on popular sites like Amazon, Last.fm, Netflix, Yahoo! Finance, Wine.com, Citysearch and many more, revealing friends and other Glue users who visited the same thing around the web.

1. Glue connects in a smarter way: Finding out what friends think of the books, music, and movies that you visit is work. Logging into social networks, checking emails, and sending IMs - require leaving the page. Glue removes this friction by surfacing the social network in context.
2. Glue builds the network automatically: Users participate in the network simply by browsing their favorite sites around the web - without changing their habits. Also, Glue enables users to leverage their existing Facebook and Twitter social graphs.
3. Glue enables networking around popular sites: Glue is decentralized and distributed across popular sites. It does not matter when or where the users visit things, Glue automatically connects them. There is no destination site, the network is always in the user's context across the web.

Why am I telling you about this?

One, because it's really cool.

Two, I really like how it works. It's fun to see who's looking at what you are, and it's really interesting when you think you're looking up an obscure movie or actor and it shows that someone else in the world has the same strange tastes that you do. Plus now there is a new feature where you can comment on what other people think about each thing you see on your bar. For example I can upload a link to a review of a book on my blog. Someone can see my link and go to my blog and then can comment on what they thought about the book itself. It's a great way to connect with people. And I think it's totally awesome that someone far away can looking on a website about a book, see my review, and get access to my blog without me having to advertise everywhere.

Three, the people who work for Glue are really helpful and super friendly. I've talked to them multiple times on Twitter, email, chat and even phone. They want to hear from users and what they think about the program. I think it's totally awesome that a company spends so much time interacting with their users and getting to personally know them. Honestly, they are the main reason why I'm even mentioning this on my blog. You can't get any more real than these awesome folks (thank you Fraser and Laura!)

Here are some vids of Glue in action:





Now about a contest:

You need to go to http://www.getglue.com and download Glue onto your computer. (it's quick simple and they will not use your private data). Once you've looked around and twiddled with the Glue bar, add me as your friend (my user name beatccr; the Glue bar should drop down on this blog page or if you are on twitter, it should drop down there too) and then come back here and tell me what you think about Glue. I'll pick a winner and they'll get a nifty Glue shirt like mine (comes in 3 colors: yellow, light blue or navy blue)

So if you want a cool shirt like mine follow these steps:

1. Download Glue
2. Tweak around with it (look up books, movies, music on sites like Amazon, IMDB, Wikipedia, etc)
3. Add me as a friend on Glue
4. Come back here and tell me what you think.

I'll pick a winner next Thursday. Good luck!

One more thing: I will never ask you guys to do something that I haven't tried first. So this is a a program I have tried out, greatly enjoyed and have benefited from. I'm sharing this with you because I think you will enjoy using it as well.