adaptiveblue Archive

Last night, Adaptive Blue hosted the “The Changing Role of PR in Publishing and Tech” meetup in NYC. The panelists were (from left to right in the video): Chantelle K from Yelp, Kristin M from Attention PR, Ami G. from Macmillan and Russ M from RussCommunications.

The panel discussion lasted an hour and I’ve split the video into 20-minute segments – you can view the videos below. Some notes from the panelists:

• Chantelle loads Tweetdeck the moment she hits the office to check Twitter and spends 30 minutes to 1 hour each day going through what her friends sent her
• Kristen discussed using the bit.ly URL shortener as a way to track ROI
• At about the 18 minutes mark in the first video, Chantelle explains how they went to market for their iPhone app using an exclusive with Robert Scoble. She notes that they saw great results by using Robert to get the word out about the app and were even able to get an exciting trending topic on Twitter. They didn’t give the news to the NYT or Newsweek. They met with Robert several times beforehand to build a relationship with Robert. Later on Chantelle noted that depending on the type of story they are trying to push, they will use different sources to work with.

There was a discussion about analytics in the second video although I found the analysis weak. There was no mention about real-value stats – just simple discussion about how many followers or fans a brand has. My guess is that in late 2010 ”followers and fans” will be the hits of 1995.

In the third video there is a discussion about whether to hire a PR firm or if you should look at bringing a person on-board internally.
Continue reading “The Changing Role of PR in Publishing and Tech (video)” »

Good morning – here are some updates from various startups across the world:

• Basecamp project reporting on the iPhone – 37signals
• Glue suggestions launch – AdaptiveBlue
• Echo commenting goes live on first site – JS-Kit
• Freshbooks wins Pick20 Canada aware – Freshbooks
• Using OpenX to manage ads on Facebook apps – OpenX
• Digsby hits 1 million users – Digsby
• Sobees adds group management and auto-complete – Sobees
• Looking at agile development – Huddle

NY-based Adaptiveblue has announced the launch of an API for their Glue service yesterday. AdaptiveBlue calls Glue a ”contextual network.” Here’s my overview of Glue from our initial review, “You install the browser plugin and then as you browse the Web normally, a menu shows up on any pages where Glue has information to share. These are typically pages dealing with movies, music, books, music artists, restaurants and wine.”

The company describes the API release as, “tapping into Glue’s databases and semantic recognition engine enabling fun & useful applications about people and things.” You can use the API to get popular lists, lookup user lists, create data streams, send info into Glue and access user profiles.

The goal of the API is to drive usage of Glue and the underlying data. The applications built using Glue should also provide new visibility for the Glue service.

The company is running a contest to find great ideas for the API. You could win an all expenses paid trip to NYC to meet the Glue team and have a hot dog and a knish. When you are in NYC, I recommend a visit to the transit museum.

Here are some updates from two NYC startups: Magnify.net and AdaptiveBlue that were released today.

Magnify.net

NY-based Magnify.net has announced a new set of packages aimed at small-to-medium sized businesses. Called the "Pro Packages" and priced starting at $249/month, the packages will include Magnify’s Quickstart, Business Builder Pro and Business Builder Premium offerings.

The new Pro Packages include training from Magnify and their hope is to help small businesses integrate a custom-branded video experience into their websites and ecommerce offerings.

Check out our extensive Magnify coverage.

AdaptiveBlue

NY-based AdaptiveBlue has announced the next version of their Glue toolbar today. I spoke with founder and CEO Alex Iskold who tells me that they have 35,000 active users and over 110,000 downloads of the Glue toolbar to-date.

The new functionality includes "connected conversations" which Alex’s calls an intelligent livestream and "popular lists" which should help the top content for the day to rise to the top.

Adam Ostrow has a good overview of the new features. AdaptiveBlue has also hooked in social sites Twitter and Facebook into this latest Glue release. The basic idea with the update is that all of your friends are on a big bus as you travel around the Web – each time you make a stop, your friends yell out from the back of the bus if this is a worthwhile stop or not.

Check out our extensive AdaptiveBlue coverage.

Just a week after the release of Glue from NY-based AdaptiveBlue, they have announced the launch of Glue for the iPhone. The iPhone version of Glue might even be more useful than the web browser version. The basic idea is that you can browse you favorites and your friend’s Glue usage as well. There’s also a tab to view popular items in a category which helps when your friends aren’t around.

What makes this app actually useful is the ability to be standing in a bookstore or movie rental shop, call up the Glue app and bingo, you get recommendations on a book or movie from your friends. No longer will you stand wondering if you should rent Office Space for the 100th time. There are wine helpers as well so you won’t look like a dud on your next date. 

Sarah Perez has more details on the Glue iPhone launch. Check out the Glue demo video from last week at the tech meetup. Here’s the company demo video on the iPhone launch:

Glue for iPhone from AdaptiveBlue on Vimeo.

Tonight AdaptiveBlue Director of Business Development Fraser Kelton presented their newest product, Glue. We reviewed Glue when it launched last month. AdaptiveBlue calls Glue a "contextual network."

Nearly everytime I write about NY-based AdaptiveBlue, I always note that while their technology is good, their ability to connect with a mainstream audience has been very limited. They seem to always push big tech words over what value the services actually provide. Last week I started playing with a new version of the AdaptiveBlue service which is a huge leap forward in attempting to reach out to the mainstream audience.

The AdaptiveBlue BlueOrganizer is no more. In its place is Glue, what the company calls a "contextual network." Here’s the basic concept behind Glue. You install the browser plugin and then as you browse the Web normally, a menu shows up on any pages where Glue has information to share. These are typically pages dealing with movies, music, books, music artists, restaurants and wine. You can also browse the full list of sites available in the Glue network.

The Glue bar shows up on the top of sites that Glue has a match for and is actually a HTML injection – this means it becomes part of the page and not a plugin that sits active at all times. The bar is a simple way to shows friends information related to the current item being viewed. You can see which of your friends like the item, which have commented on the item, along with where the person viewed the item. You also see a sample of others outside your network who liked the item – this helps with discovery.

You can click on a friend to see more information about them and the current item. From there you can select other services related to the current item including item purchase. There’s a "2 cents" option which lets you add comments about the item directly into Glue. I assume if they get enough traction on this 2 cents concept, it could lead to a very rich reviews destination site.

Their business model continues to be based on affiliate comissions through the use of the Glue bar. I hope they will look to diversify their revenue potential as I am a bit concerned that there won’t be enough sales to drive enough total volume. But affiliate revenue is good as a piece of the overall business model pie.

I think today’s launch is a great step forward towards the mainstream for AdaptiveBlue. Now the really tough work begins on getting mainstream user adoption – they need a strong number of users and friend relationships for the service to be effective.

Here’s a demo the company put together about Glue: