AdaptiveBlue Enhances Sticky Web Browser Companion Glue With API

Glue (formerly known as BlueOrganizer), now boasts its own API. Glue is a contextual social networking layer powered by a Firefox browser add-on which startup AdaptiveBlue added to its semantic browsing technology platform late last year.

This provides third-party developers with a way to connect to and tap into the databases and semantic recognition engine the company has been building over the past few months.

Glue essentially leverages information that already exists inside Web pages, and enables users to interact with things like books, music and movies from a toolbar layered on top of the pages in a frame when browsing with Firefox. It tells you more contextually relevant things about what you’re browsing, and also lets you interact with friends or unknown people who also visited, liked, or purchased those things.

With the API, developers can dive into the information that’s been pulled together by the Glue add-on over time: things that a particular user has displayed an interest in since he or she installed the extension, but also lists of users that liked a specific book, music album or movie. More on the surface, the API can be used to fetch information from ‘the Glue activity stream’, which shows a continuous influx of semantic data generated by its users.

But the most interesting use for the API as far as I’m concerned is the ability to link to a certain object on any Glue site and receive structured information about it straight away. I can see a lot of potential for other web services to integrate that information into their own tools. Finally, the interactive features Glue users enjoy from the toolbar (think likes, comments and replies) can henceforth be built into third-party applications as well.

Developers, go check it out and let us know what you can come up with. Don’t forget to tell AdaptiveBlue about your app(s) either: the company is running an API launch contest which gives you the chance to win some prizes and swag in return for the cool stuff you create with their data.

(Image from Webmonkey)