Author’s note: My past posts have been directed to social media applications and tools outside of the leading platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, etc. My aim is to educate everyone on the many ways to connect with people outside just Twitter and Facebook, using diverse and interesting technologies and tools that everyone should try to be part of the conversation. You can then make a decision if it is something you want to use more of or not in your social media strategy or just for fun. You never know where that “connection” you make online turns out to be the biggest opportunity of your life!

I am stuck on Glue. I love it.

No, before you think I have gone off the reservation sniffing the stuff, Glue is actually the name of yet another social bookmarking site where you can find common interests with others and promote yourself and your business as well. For the consumer, it’s fun, let’s you connect with others on similar interests and maybe even find things you never would have found otherwise.

For the electronics company selling the hottest video game, the wine site selling the pinot noir, the book site selling the latest bestseller, or even the stock site picking up on some favorite stocks, Glue provides some pretty invaluable feedback for them as well where they can review the comments and see how popular the object is.

Glue is not exactly a site or platform, it is actually a free downloadable plugin from your browser, whether you use Internet Explorer or Firefox, that allows you to find books, music, video games, movies, tv shows, stocks, wine, restaurants and more. It let’s you connect with your friends simply by following them and their recommendations and you can click the “I like it” button and even enter “add my 2 cents” comment for others to see.

You can find out what others say about your recommendations and if you are bored at this point, simply hit “shuffle” and Glue will find some sites for you. It is a little like StumbleUpon at this point when you use the shuffle where it will find similar sites based on your likes. Unlike StumbleUpon which can feature pretty much any web page with content, Glue is more selective at this time with consumer products like books, movies and other objects in their listed categories on their website.

From a consumer standpoint, this is most helpful to me when going to Amazon and seeing comments on books I am considering buying. I realize there are comments and reviews on the Amazon site from people who have purchased the book already, but perhaps I want to see if any of my friends whom I trust have anything to say about it as well. This is why Glue is so handy. And the more friends you add to Glue, the more comments you will see that might help you make a tough decision to buy a book or movie and spend time to watch the tv show you heard about.

Glue is so easy to setup. Simply go to the Glue site on your preferred browser, IE or Firefox, and it will recognize the browser and ask you to download the plugin. I would highly suggest watching the video before starting just so you can get a brief synopsis of how it works. Once you are ready, Glue will guide you along and show how easy the installation process is. Once installed, you will see how Glue works on your browser window on the bottom. Now go find some people and some sites!

Though I loved Glue when it first came out and I immediately added it, I love it even more now with the recent upgrades Adaptive Blue just made.

The Gluebar was on the top previously, instead of on the bottom and caused some problems to websites, making the navigation drop down. I am happy to say that they listened and fixed the problem and have also added some very neat items as well.

You can post your likes and comments directly to your Facebook account, ask your Twitter and Facebook friends about your likes, reply to visits and likes, if you like an item it will bring up suggestions including Amazon and Netflix to name a few. I love the new shuffle button to check out suggestions so I can find more interesting sites to review. The new upgrades also allow for private browsing if you chose not to be that social.

The future of Glue I believe is going to be very big for consumers to get honest opinions from people they trust to make intelligent purchases and watching decisions. I also think that consumer brands are going to take a lot more notice about what people are saying about them on this site, if they are not already.

I also believe Glue will be adding many more categories and new recommended sites in the future and will become an essential bookmarking review site for everyone on a more vast level.

If you are a company or site that has something to offer on any listed category on the Glue recommended sites, you have the opportunity to get Glue to recognize your site. And if you are not on, you should be.

All in all, Glue is a great tool; it’s free, takes second to install and gets you connected. And who knows, you might even have some fun meeting people and checking out new things; as well as perhaps reading the reviews and thinking twice on that slasher movie for your first date…