Glide OS launches Internet Explorer plugin, BlackBerry app

With all the recent attention given to Google's Chrome OS, it is only natural that interest in other cloud-based environments should be higher than usual. However, interest in Webtop operating systems still remains relatively low.

Earlier this year, Ray Valdes of Gartner Research said, "From a long-term perspective, I don't see any change to current market trends, which are that Webtop ventures are not gaining market traction."

So if users aren't interested in accessing a pseudo-desktop environment from within their browser window, why not integrate your cloud services into the browser and have the Webtop as a backup interface?

That's exactly the approach that startup TransMedia has taken with its Glide OS. It has retained its foundation as a strong graphical Webtop, but melded the cloud-based environment into the browser, somewhat like Chrome OS does.

But Glide differs from Chrome OS in the fact that it isn't driving your machine, it is simply acting as a conduit between Glide's Cloud-based services, your desktop, and the rest of the Web.

When you sign up for Glide, you are signed up for 20 GB of cloud storage, a document creation and collaboration suite (word processor, spreadsheet, presentation application), Web-based photo editing and sharing, a Twitter-esque microblog, e-mail, address book, blog, and HTML editor. Any documents you create within Glide's services can be dragged and dropped into others for sharing and collaboration. Also, content you find out on the Web -- including videos, music, Web Sites, and links -- can be "captured" and saved in various file formats in your Glide account.

With the Glide plugin for Internet Explorer, launched today, Glide's Web-based services are interfaced through buttons on a browser toolbar rather than through a portal. That way, you can more efficiently capture content you come across on the web or create on your own, and share it with any device with a browser.

TransMedia today also announced a new BlackBerry app for its Glide Engage blogging service. Somewhat like a mashup of Twitter and Google Wave, Engage lets users make posts as long as 1,400 characters and turn them into discussion threads in a Glide inbox which allows file attachment and sharing. These threads can also be synced with Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. Completed discussions can then be archived as Glide Write, PDF, Word, or RTF files.

"The BlackBerry platform has long been the choice of business professionals around the world, and today we are excited to launch the native version of Glide Engage for BlackBerry users providing them with a powerful business and social networking application and an integrated productivity and collaboration application suite that greatly expands the capabilities of their BlackBerry phones," said TransMedia Chairman & CEO, Donald Leka. "With integrated rights based file sharing, version control, and tracking capabilities, Glide Engage raises the bar for mobile business collaboration applications." 

Glide OS for Internet Explorer and Glide Engage for BlackBerry are both available right now.