Write On Top of the Internet With New Firefox Add-On
A new browser add-on by L.A.-based Border Stylo aims to bring the social web experience closer than ever before to the experience of sitting next to a friend and pointing to something on your screen. The Glass add-on (now in private beta for Firefox, coming soon to Google's Chrome browser) combines elements of social bookmarking, Facebook and the humble Post-It note.
Glass lets people talk about the Web with their friends in the bluntest way possible - by posting comments, photos or video in boxes on the page, directly over whatever headline, photo or element they want to highlight.
"Glass is a virtual canvas over the entire web where you can literally place notes on top of any website. Now, instead of sending a link, your contacts see your thought together with the moment that inspired it, in context, allowing you to share the experience of being there," says the web site.
The add-on is similar to the Sidewiki extension for Chrome, which lets users post text comments in a sidebar to any website. But Glass lets you anchor a comment, photo or video to any text or image anywhere on the page. Basically, it's as if someone placed a transparency over the website you're viewing and handed you a felt marker.
Users direct their posts, or "slides," to specific friends, who then see the action in a stream of their Glass contacts that can be pulled up within the browser. Click the update and zoom to the website with your friend's comment, exactly as it appeared to them, and comment back, add a photo or invite more friends to join the conversation. Your stream lives in your browser but may also be accessed from the Glass web site.
The result is a visual discussion that could end up feeling more immediate and more social than copying a link, heading over to Twitter and trying to make a coherent remark in however many characters you have left.
One of the most interesting things that struck us was how unwebby the idea is. You don't interact with the page, just with your friends. This app seems like an especially good fit for the visual, stripped-down interface and immediate feedback on a device like the iPad. It's also well-suited to collaborations where multiple users need to talk about a project unambiguously.
Glass's catchphrase is, "Share experiences, not content," which gets to the heart of why this app just might be as sticky as a Post-It note. Perhaps the new frontier of the social web will be obscuring all the computers, connections, apps and tools between you and your friends.
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Along with the silent updates,I also wanted a Addon installation without the need of having to restart the browser...
One thing is inevitable with tech: Things get reinvented all the time. This exact functionality existed on the web around 1997... it's just that we didn't have "the social web" all formalized with linkable API's and browsers with extensions etc.
I wish I could think of it... But I'll bet Brewster over at Archive.org would remember it.
In fact there have been so many varieties of annotation tools that have come and gone its quite a shame... so many were ahead of their time and users back then didn't know what to do with them.
Not at all trying to dis or shortchange GLASS -- it sounds fantastic! And I intend to use it. Perhaps this will be the implementation that sticks -- sticks around. I just find it kind of sad that tech writers today have such narrow frames of reference. It's as if they were born since the iphone was invented... and anything pre iphone "never happened".
Well long before Web 2.0 brought a beauty and uniformity of toolsets that could be shared so easily between people and sites, and embedded and displayed -- a great great things, there is a HUGE HUGE list of innovation that occurred on the web.
It ticks me off that RWW doesn't seem to know anything other than since 9/11, and maybe they don't even know that happened:
NEWSFEED to RWW: There were things called the TWIN TOWERS in New York City, also known as the World Trade Center.
Can you please start doing some homework, and not JUST servin' up the latest off the griddle every day on an endless conveyor belt of whats new whats new whats new whats new whats new whats new whats new whats new whats new whats new... Do you guys have anyone budgets on staff as a researcher, or are you all essentially "skimmers" casting lines into the great vast internets daily to see what bites?
Okay, sure, file this under a "rant"... Yeah, those were things people used to do do before 140. I guess good thing we clipped speech to 140. Shorter attention spans = less tediousness and our culture flourishes in our grandeur of collective wisdom! Cheers mate!
Another pointless in my opinion add-on for the already too heavy firefox browser...
In addition, we always look new apps with a naive way, I mean it can always become something that wastes time, without a serious benefit to it and requires more than wanted time to operate...
To conclude, some times simple apps become burden instead of useful.
just my opinion
Posted by: George Stefas
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July 28, 2010 12:56 AM
This is like Diigo notes, is it not?
Posted by: http://openid.codoxide.com/sameera
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July 28, 2010 2:22 AM
Similar functionality but without the need of an add-on: http://myselftogo.com/
Third Voice did this a while ago.
@XDADesire's comment was ok until the 9/11 part. Went cuckoo at that point.
Diigo already had this though.
Highlighting and stickiposting on a website.
And social bookmarking functions.
This looks like a pretty promising plug-in, i wonder what the security is like. What can they add to this for the next release? maybe something to track friends and trending?
Thanks for sharing!
Seon
This sort of thing drives publishers crazy. Anybody remember the ThirdVoice backlash?
I don't think it's like Diigo. When I was using Diigo a while back, and it felt more like an archiving tool. It could take screenshots and save them.
I came across an invitation for Glass about 2 months ago on Facebook and I've been using it since. (Not sure if the invite still works, but it was 'believegg') Totally recommend it.
The biggest difference is that the conversations are real-time on top of the website, without having to refresh the page. And if you are on the same page, it's like chatting on IM. Ive been using Glass for school work with classmates in *private*. I know Diigo was either too private (for only one person) or too public (for everyone to see). This on the other hand has been great for letting me include whoever I want.
Oh best part about it, you don't have to copy, paste, send an email and hope your friend clicks on the link. This all happens right on top of the website.
I love the blog. Great post. It is very true, people must learn how to learn before they can learn. lol i know it sounds funny but its very true. . .
highly recomend it! we´ve seen few iniciatives in a similar direction (re-frame or sidewiki) that didn´t meet the point of allowing the user to break walls and comment right on top of the web giving real context to what is being shared. It´s a really cool tool! It gives the user the power to decide who is he sharing content and comments with in an enviroment of total privacy. I´ve been using it for 2 months and it´s getting really exciting. Thanks for sharing!
@Stephy:
Thanks for the explanation. I think you can still use Diigo like this. But, you are right that it was not intended for real-time sharing.
Diigo has Group annotations btw: It doesn't have to be just you or everyone.
Anyway, now that you've mentioned real-time, I wanna try this out :)
Thanks.
Posted by: http://openid.codoxide.com/sameera
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July 28, 2010 7:20 PM