Glide OS Extends Search

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Glide OS

On December 7, New York-based TransMedia plans to release a new version of its Glide OS media sharing and application suite that puts search in its place.

Taking a page from the "embrace and extend" tactics used by Microsoft against Netscape, TransMedia is making its Glide OS service accessible from any Web site using browser plug-ins for Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari Web browsers.

Glide OS is a Web desktop environment, or Webtop, that offers online productivity applications in conjunction with rights-based media sharing and collaboration options, atop online file storage.

It's similar in scope to Google's online apps, with everything from word processing to image editing to conferencing.

With the upcoming release, Glide OS will become more of a service and less of a destination.

Glide OS can be accessed from most Internet connected computers through a Web browser and through most mobile phones. It offers desktop synchronization, which ensures that local copies of files are mirrored in the cloud.

By putting Glide OS services into contact with Google Search, Microsoft Bing, and Yahoo Search, among other search engines, TransMedia is enabling users to conduct searches through these services and then to capture search result content for use in Glide.

"The idea is to make the Web your hard drive," said TransMedia CEO Donald Leka.

The revised Glide OS also provides a way to use these search engines from GlideOS.com, without leaving the Glide environment.

The Glide search interface allows Web content found through Bing, Google, or Yahoo searches to be captured and saved in Microsoft Word 2007, 97, 2003, XP, PDF, RTF, or Glide Write Document formats. From there, it can be stored, synchronized for availability anywhere, and shared.

The Glide service has also undergone a significant redesign, which should make the possibilities available to users easier to understand.

In August, TransMedia launched Glide Engage, a micro-blogging service that can be thought of as Twitter with a 1400, rather than 140, character limit.

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