GetGlue links Web resources for movies, books and music together
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Due diligence on finding out whether a movie is worth spending the two hours to watch: Some Internet-savvy film buffs have this down to a science.
They’ll browse some reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, hop over to YouTube or Apple.com to find a high-quality trailer, punch in a Twitter search to see what viewers’ immediate reactions are, and then take a trip to IMdB to see if their favorite actor is on the cast.
The more in-the-know folks, about 400,000 of them, turn to a service called GetGlue, which does most of the work for them.
Like its name implies, the GetGlue Web browser plug-in and its companion website is the virtual substance that holds together key resources about a particular movie, book or album.
‘The Web is about pages,’ GetGlue Chief Executive Alex Iskold said recently during an interview in the company’s New York office. ‘People don’t care about pages. They care about things.’
It’s a somewhat radical rethinking of how the Internet works. The GetGlue browser plug-in scans pages as you browse the Web, looking for media titles mentioned. It populates the toolbar with suggestions about similar movies, and displays companion resources.
If you’re looking at data for ‘The Godfather’ on IMdB, GetGlue will show a trailer on YouTube and reviews on other sites. The application pulls from more than 300 popular websites.
The problem it solves is pretty straightforward: To get a clear picture of a new release, you’ll have to jump between a handful of sites. To keep users up-to-date on what’s coming out, GetGlue added a section on Monday for providing smart recommendations about the week’s releases, curated by a pair of human editors. Current users of the 5-month-old site will notice that the company also launched a redesign.
‘The website is for when you’re bored,’ Iskold said. ‘The plug-in is when you’re in a hurry.’
There’s a social networking component, of course. Users can create profiles and connect with friends. Recommendations are based on products users have indicated that they like.
Users can earn points for participating on the site, a system called ‘guruship,’ and amass virtual stickers. Earn seven sticker images, and one of GetGlue’s more than a dozen employees will package up real stickers and mail them to you. Because who doesn’t love stickers?
Adhesives aside, GetGlue offers film, book and music fans a sticky way to deliver product info.
-- Mark Milian
twitter.com/markmilian