tag:,2008:/1/tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3113- 2008-07-07T14:22:08Z Comments for AdaptiveBlue Feeds the Top-Down Semantic Web with Automatic SmartLinks Movable Type 4.1 tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3113 2007-10-23T04:00:00Z 2007-12-16T23:08:15Z AdaptiveBlue Feeds the Top-Down Semantic Web with Automatic SmartLinks digg_url = 'http://digg.com/programming/The_Semantic_Web_is_Here_AdaptiveBlue_Releases_Automatic_SmartLinks'; digg_bgcolor = '#ffffff'; digg_skin = 'compact'; AdaptiveBlue makers of the popular Firefox plugin, BlueOrganizer, has launched a new version of their SmartLinks product that makes it easy for blog and web site publishers to include the links automatically within their pages. Previously, SmartLinks were only accessible via the BlueOrganizer. Now, web... Josh Catone http://www.readwriteweb.com/ AdaptiveBlue makers of the popular Firefox plugin, BlueOrganizer, has launched a new version of their SmartLinks product that makes it easy for blog and web site publishers to include the links automatically within their pages. Previously, SmartLinks were only accessible via the BlueOrganizer. Now, web site publishers can add SmartLinks to their page and the service will parse them automatically.

SmartLinks are browser popups, similar to the Snap Shots product that we use on this blog, that add additional contextual information to certain types of links, including links to books, movies, music, stocks, and wine. AdaptiveBlue supports a large list of top web sites, automatically recognizing and augmenting links to those properties.

Though the comparison to Snap's product is inevitable, SmartLinks are fairly dissimilar. While Snap's product adds popups to every link on the page and offers just content previews, SmartLinks are added only to the links it understands and for which is has additional information it can add. The info contained in the contextual popups generally includes links to additional sources and basic information on the everyday item being linked to. For example, a music SmartLink will contain links to the album on iTunes, Last.fm, and Amazon, links to sources for lyrics, reviews, videos, and photos as well as a brief profile of the artist.

]]>

SmartLinks also include ways to share the item being linked to on popular social sites. All the big sites, and most of the small sites, are represented, but these links are also contextual. A SmartLink popup for a book, for example, will include links to save the book on Shelfari and LibraryThing, while a SmartLink for a music artist will include links for creating stations on Last.fm or Pandora. The list of which sites are supported both within and by SmartLinks is currently controlled by AdaptiveBlue, who say they will respond to community feedback when deciding when and if to add new ones. Founder and CEO Alex Iskold told me today that the idea is not to overwhelm users, so rather than support every site under the sun, the company plans to hopefully pick and choose from among the best.

Installing SmartLinks is just a matter of copying a single line of Javascript. The company has also created 1-click installs for Blogger and TypePad, and a plugin for Wordpress.

What's in it for site owners? Beyond the added value that SmartLinks provides for users by wrapping certain links with additional contextual information, site owners can monetize the links in the popups by providing affiliate IDs (affiliate links are how AdaptiveBlue currently monetizes the service). Further, users of the BlueOrganizer addon for Firefox will benefit from added integration that makes it easier to save links to their organizer. AdaptiveBlue has a "try before you buy" preview on their web site that allows publishers to see what their sites would look like with SmartLinks enabled.

In the title I mentioned the Top-Down Semantic Web, which is something that Alex Iskold has written about on this blog. Alex is eating his own dog food, so to speak, by releasing a product that buys directly into the concept. AdaptiveBlue's SmartLinks essentially works in the way that Alex described the Top-Down Semantic Web, by understanding specific types of information (in this case links) and wrapping them with additional data. SmartLinks takes unstructured information and turns it into structured information by understanding a basic item on the web and adding semantics to it.

Full disclosure: AdaptiveBlue Founder and CEO Alex Iskold is a regular contributor to Read/WriteWeb, and AdaptiveBlue is currently a sponsor of this site.

]]> tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3113-comment:25242 Comment from Adam on 2007-10-24 Adam http://gigawattdesign.com I've been trying this out on my blog this afternoon, and it's really seamless and easy. Very cool idea. One thing from your post confuses me, though:

What's in it for site owners? Beyond the added value that SmartLinks provides for users by wrapping certain links with additional contextual information, site owners can monetize the links in the popups by providing affiliate IDs (affiliate links are how AdaptiveBlue currently monetizes the service).

This doesn't seem to be true. All the links in the smartlink pane pass Adaptive Blue's affiliate ID, not mine. Is there something I'm missing?

]]> 2007-10-24T18:42:15Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3113-comment:25243 Comment from Adam on 2007-10-24 Adam http://gigawattdesign.com ...and 10 minutes later, I have an answer directly from Adaptive Blue. There's a separate javascript snippet that I overlooked that will overwrite their amazon id with yours.

]]> 2007-10-24T18:52:32Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3113-comment:25244 Comment from Alex Iskold on 2007-10-24 Alex Iskold http://www.adaptiveblue.com Thanks Adam. SmartLinks allow you to plug in ids for Amazon and other affiliate programs. We will be exposing these options in the install page soon.

Alex

]]> 2007-10-24T19:07:18Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3113-comment:25245 Comment from Russ @ bombay potatoes on 2007-10-24 Russ @ bombay potatoes http://bombay-potatoes.com If people use their affiliate IDs then the question is reversed; What's in it for Adaptive Blue?

]]> 2007-10-24T21:21:17Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3113-comment:25246 Comment from Erik Wingren on 2007-10-24 Erik Wingren http://blog.snap.com/ Josh,

For the benefit of your readers, that are not yet familiar with Snap Shots, I would like to add that Snap Shots offer a lot more than "just previews".

To follow the Curious George example you use, that same hyperlink, pointing to Amazon, would trigger a Snap ProductShot and pass along the publisher's affiliate ID when defined in the URL.

10 more types of Shots — for links to Wikipedia, Google Maps, YouTube or Flickr (to mention just a few) — can be experienced on the Snap Shots Showcase

I agree that the similarities between Adaptive Blue and Snap Shots end with the fact that both products offer an information overlay on outbound links.

Where Snap Shots brings the destination content to the end-user in a condensed format, enabling greater speed and accuracy of navigation, Adaptive Blue brings the end-user information and actions related to the destination content, enabling multiple alternative paths of navigation.

As an end-user, Adaptive Blue is great when you are exploring a subject, while Snap Shots is great when you already have an idea of what you are looking for and need to find it fast.

As a publishers, you would be wise to carefully consider the signal/noise ratio of what you ask your readers to process at any given time.

Cheers.
--
Erik Wingren
Snap UX Research
erik[@]snap[.]com

]]> 2007-10-24T22:24:53Z tag:72.47.210.69,2007://1.3113-comment:25247 Comment from Josh Catone on 2007-10-24 Josh Catone http://www.readwriteweb.com/ Hi Erik,

Thanks for the post.

I probably should have said content previews. The fact remains though, that Snap's product is about previewing content, while AdaptiveBlue product is about adding additional contextual links and information. I think the comparison is still sound (and fair).

]]> 2007-10-24T22:52:22Z