Glue, the in-browser social network, comes to Internet Explorer.

Written on 8th June 2009                                                                                                              12 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.

Glue is a contextual social network that sits within your browser, powered, until now, by a Firefox extension and therefore only Firefox compatible. Today however, the innovative startup, lead by CEO Alex Iskold, announces compatibility with Internet Explorer.

This is a major milestone for the company and after months of work developing and growing the semantic recognition engine, users will now enjoy the benefits of using the app with the two most popular web browsers.

How does Glue work?

Following installation of the extension, you simply browse the web as you would do normally, however where Glue gets useful is when browsing pages that include information about movies, music, books, music artists, restaurants and alike (sites like Amazon, Last.fm, IMBD).

Visually, Glue slides down in the form of a bar which acts as though it were part of the page. Via the Glue bar, you are able to “like” the item on the page (album, movie etc..) or leave a comment/review about the item. You’ll also see previous reviews from friends of yours and other recent visitors, no matter where the comment was originally made. Just to reiterate that point – it doesn’t matter if one of your friends reviewed the album on Last.fm or Amazon, the review will appear wherever you might be.

Making the most of Glue

You do feel more at home using Glue when you have existing friends on there, and thankfully Glue makes it easy as pie to find existing Twitter and Facebook friends that use the site – or invite others that aren’t already using it.

“Adding your 2c” (commenting) and liking the various movies and music you come across is a major part of the application and you’ll notice a healthy amount of discussion across the web – a good sign. With private messages and replies integrated, its actually very possible to have in depth discussions about a specific product, all of which adds to Glue’s usefulness.

Glue came to the iPhone at the end of last year with a basic application that brought your favorites and friend’s Glue activity to you, wherever you have your phone.  ReadWriteWeb have an in-depth look at the iPhone application.

Most recently however, Glue announced the release of their API, capturing the attention of developers looking to make the most of the rich data Glue collects. Allen Stern over at CenterNetworks covered the announcement: (more…)

alex iskold, firefox, getglue, Glue, Internet Explorer, socialnetwork

12 Comments »

Microsoft withdraws from EU antitrust hearing. Claims it’s just not fair.

Written on 22nd May 2009                                                                                                              1 COMMENT
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.

Microsoft has pulled out of their antitrust hearing before the European Commission, claiming they weren’t being given rights to fair trial.

The company was due to present their case against allegations of unfair competition practices for including Internet Explorer by default into Windows.

In a blog post on the company blog titled “Why hold a hearing in the EU if key decision makers are unable to attend?”, Microsoft explained its actions by referencing  an important worldwide intergovernmental competition law meeting, the International Competition Network (ICN).

The ICN conference in Zurich, Switzerland clashes dates with Microsoft’s European Commission hearing and

“As a result, it appears that many of the most influential Commission and national competition officials with the greatest interest in our case will be in Zurich and so unable to attend our hearing in Brussels.”

After numerous attempts to change dates, the EU stood firm and refused to reschedule, Microsoft has therefore informed the Commission that they will not be attending.

As a result, the EU will now reportedly make a summary judgement on the case.

You can’t help but feel a little sorry for the software giant.

EU, hearing, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, Windows

1 Comment »

If Browsers Were Women

Written on 16th March 2009                                                                                                              123 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.

via

browsers, funny, Internet Explorer, opera, safari

123 Comments »

Dump Internet Explorer. You are Vulnerable.

Written on 16th December 2008                                                                                                              14 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.

If you’re still looking for a reason to finally switch loyalty from Internet Explorer over to one of many competing browsers, trust me, this is it.

A major flaw in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer that allows hackers to gain the password details of the user has been revealed.

This is not a rumor, it has been confirmed by Microsoft who in fact announced the discovery themselves admitting a “vulnerability in Internet Explorer” that “could allow remote code execution.” Not Good.

Still think this is over hyped news? Think again. Even the BBC has picked up the story with commentary from a number of industry analysts. (more…)

bbc, browser, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox

14 Comments »

Google Chrome’s market share down to 1.5 percent

Written on 14th October 2008                                                                                                              10 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Interesting news about Chrome. Colin Barras, online technology reporter for Short Sharp Science, has been keeping an eye on the Global Marketshare Statistics of Clicky (the web analytics service we use, approve, and recommend). He noticed that the Google browser peaked when it was the talk of the town, with a 3.1% share. Yet since then it has dropped to 1.5%, sometimes even 1.4%.

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (around 60%) and Mozilla Firefox (around 30%) caress their steady figures. Barras expects Google to “have a job on its hands if Chrome is ever to rival Firefox, let alone Internet Explorer”. He also notes that the Chrome download link disappeared of the minimalistic Google frontpage – for reasons unknown.

To me it all makes perfect sense.

Google launches a beta version of a browser.
People check it out.
Google has enough test users and takes the link off the frontpage.
The folks who love Chrome wait for a stable version and start using their old browsers again.
Some hardcore fans stay.
Google launches a new kick-ass version and resumes its quest for world domination.

Hat tip: Bright (Dutch only)

chrome, google, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, Mozilla Firefox

10 Comments »