This article was published on February 2, 2010

Semantic Recommendation Engine Glue Now Giving Its Gurus “Special Powers and Giveaways”


Semantic Recommendation Engine Glue Now Giving Its Gurus “Special Powers and Giveaways”

getglueeeGlue, the popular browser-based content recommendation engine has today launched a new program to both improve its ecosystem, and reward its top users.

We have covered Glue a number of times, always being impressed with the progress that the startup has made. The service, a browser add-on and website, tracks users activity across item related website (think movies, bands, wines, etc), and keeps a tally. Users can give likes to items they approve of, and the opposite to the opposite.

Glue then serves up recommendations based on where you have been, and what you have liked.

But the service is also a social network of sorts, and that is what Glue has improved today. Each item has a Guru, a person that is the most active around that specific piece of content. A Mayor in Foursquare is a simple comparison. Today, Glue is giving Gurus more power, and more rewards.

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Gurus can now edit the pages that they are Gurus for, changing the image, the text, and suggesting similar content for the recommendation engine to consume, sort, and display. But all that work is hardly going to be without reward, Glue has something special just for its Gurus.

Glue has partnered with a number of major publishing and film companies to give rewards to its Gurus. Say for example that you are a Guru of a horror movie, and a new horror film is coming out. That film company could send free tickets to all the Gurus of horror films. By putting tickets into the hands of the enthusiasts, the company is putting its merchandise into its loudest fans. Brilliant.

Of course, access to Glue’s Gurus is probably not free, so perhaps we are seeing an early attempt by the startup to monetize. Glue continues to be a product that I use everyday. If you have never played with Glue, you can check out my profile to get a taste of the fun.

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