Remember when people called the Internet the information superhighway? It’s probably been over a decade since I heard that phrase, and for good reason. While information still resides in all corners of the net, the focus has shifted. Today the web is a largely social platform where we can make connections with people we otherwise would never have known. Yes, we share bits of information from this superhighway with our friends, both new and old, but the emphasis lies on the sharing, not on the information itself. Services like Facebook and Twitter embody this social ideal. Today we’ll look at another service that tries to reconcile these social connections. It’s called Glide Engage, and while it’s small beans now it has the potential to enhance the way you connect with others.
Glide overview
Engage is actually just another application in the Glide OS, now in version 3.0. This isn’t an operating system to replace the one running on your computer. Rather, it works in the cloud — one of the big buzzwords of the past year or two. The Glide OS allows you to create documents and spreadsheets, edit photos, upload files, create emails, browse media, and more. This all gets stored online, so you can access it from anywhere.
After just a few hours of playing with the Glide OS, I could probably write a 3,000-word review of that alone. But, since our focus remains on BlackBerry, I’ll resist the temptation. Worry not, though. There’s plenty going on with Glide’s Engage application, and their BlackBerry version suits our needs perfectly. So let’s take a look under the hood and see what makes Engage tick.
Getting started
Before you use the Engage application, you’ll have to register for a Glide account. Head to glideengage.com from a regular browser and click on the register button. That will take you through the whole process. Once you have your account, then head to http://www.glideengage.com/mobiledownloads.html from your BlackBerry browser to download the application. If you’re so inclined, you can just type the address for the .jad file into your browser and get it right away. The address is http://www.glideengage.com/download/glideengage.jad.
After you install the application, run in. You’ll enter in your user information, and then it’s onto the Engage home screen. You might find it somewhat familiar.
Twitter without limits
When you first log into Engage on your BlackBerry, you’ll see a text bar running across the top of the screen. Though it doesn’t ask what you’re doing, that’s its purpose. With Engage, however, you’re not limited to 140 characters. The application actually allows for 1,400 characters. This allows for a bit more depth to each post, and also allows full URLs for those who don’t like the URL shorteners used by necessity with Twitter.
By default, you’ll see the latest posts from other Engage users. Posts, by the way, are the Engage equivalent of tweets, just to be clear. From the BlackBerry app, you can click on the headline and read the full text of the post, including the link, which you can click and open in your BlackBerry browser. You can then repost the item, just as you might rewet something, or you can reply to the user. On the web interface, you can click on Find Engaging, which then lets you follow the user, or you can block the user.
Again, the interface works very much like Twitter, only with larger character limits. Some will find this useful. It can be difficult to express a thought in just 140 characters, even if you abbreviate words — and at that point it just looks sloppy. The higher limit might lead to more rambling, but it can also lead to more thoughtful posts. That’s the major advantage of Engage.
Attaching media and news to posts
If you want to attach media to your post, click the Menu button and select the top option, New Post. This brings you to a much larger screen where you can take better advantage of the high character limit. To attach a media file, select Media, and then the appropriate format from the drop-down box. This allows you to browse through public files on Engage. These are better used with the desktop Glide OS, but you can still attach them to your posts on the BlackBerry. If you want to search just your own media files, uncheck the Glide Society box. When you’ve selected your file, click the option to insert for viewing, and you’ll be back at the post screen with the file location in the text box.
You can also attach news alerts to your posts by clicking the News Alerts button below the text box. Here you’ll see a list of recent stories. Since by default Engage compiles everything, you can also search for the specific news you seek. I assume that the default search changes as the news does — the default at the time of review is Obama,Tsunami,Fraud,Recession,Iran — but again you can change that to whatever you want. There’s also an option to select from predetermined keywords, also presumably linked to hot topics. On the web interface you can create custom keyword news alerts, but unfortunately this is not yet a feature on the BlackBerry version. You’ll have to enter in your search each time you want to perform it. The only upside is that your most recent search remains in the box.
Discussion groups
As an added social feature, Engage allows users to create discussion groups. These can be private discussions between friends, or a public discussion among the Engage user base. Once you finish a discussion, you can save it to a PDF file.
To create a new discussion group, click Menu and select Create Discussion Group. There you set the topic and invite participants. You can invite other Engage users, or you can just start a discussion. There’s a check box below which lets you determine whether this is a private or public discussion. Public groups can also post to other social networking sites, like Facebook.
If you want to join a discussion group, select the Discussion Group option from the menu. There you can browse group notifications in your inbox and outbox, or you can search for public groups. Once you’re in a group, you can post messages to that group the same way you’d send posts to the general Engage population.
Glide Society
One feature I found pretty neat: Glide Society. This basically aggregates the media that other users upload. Just click Menu and then select Glide Society. You’ll then see a page full of photos uploaded by other users. Click on that and you can see options to view the latest comments, add the media to your post, or create a discussion group about it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a way to interact with the media from the Engage application.
This is where the Glide OS comes in handy. From your desktop, you can click The Cube and play music from a selection of uploaded songs. From your Engage application, select Glide OS. That will open a BlackBerry browser window. From there select music and you’ll see the selection. It looks pretty limited right now, and it also doesn’t appear to be the same as the listing under Glide Society. Perhaps this is one area where they can iron out some kinks in the near future.
The big downside
As far as features and usability go, I like Glide Engage enough. Posting up to 1,400 characters is nice, and the interface on the BlackBerry app is intuitive. The problem, however, is one that any Twitter competitors faces: users. From what I can tell, very few people use the Twitter-like posting service. In the past 24 hours, there are only about a dozen new posts, and two of them are my test ones. A service like this without users won’t get very far.
The potential is there, though, and Glide claims to have over a million users, with about 2,000 signing up every day. Even that poses problems, though. Without many active users, people new to Engage might not participate as much. Perhaps they’re gaining membership rapidly, but unless those people use the service it’s not of much use. Again, I think there’s a lot of room for Glide to grow Engage, but it will take a lot of work to build a robust and active user base.
This post originated at BBGeeks.com – home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.
Quick walkthrough of Glide Engage for BlackBerry
This post originated at BBGeeks.com – home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.
Quick walkthrough of Glide Engage for BlackBerry