Gliider, a trip-planning tool which was available as a Mozilla Firefox add-on only, was expected to launch today as an Internet Explorer-compatible tool, as well.
Users download Gliider, which resides as an icon in their browser toolbar, and then they can drag travel deals and other content from anywhere on the Web and drop it into their gliider desktop folders for trip-planning purposes.
If you are wondering why Gliider, which was a finalist in the PhoCusWright Travel Innovation Summit 2009, wasn't already compatible with every major web browser, CEO Jordan Stolper says developing gliider for Internet Explorer was a relatively large undertaking.
"It took a team of developers on three continents working round the clock for four months to get this baby out," says Stolper, adding that Microsoft doesn't nurture add-ons in the way that Mozilla does.
"So the skill set to build for it is both rare and expensive, and getting rich functionality like gliider's to work well on IE is exceptionally complex," Stolper says. "But the outcome is awesome."
In addition to being a "richly interactive and highly functional app," Gliider for Internet Explorer also provides e-commerce websites data on travelers' intent which can be used to increase conversions, Stolper claims.
Gliider can be downloaded for Internet Explorer 7 and higher releases.
One difference between Gliider functionality on Firefox and Internet Explorer is that with the latter, the gliider tray with its various folders can be moved around the desktop instead of remaining in one fixed position.
Meanwhile, Stolper says readying the tool for Google Chrome is "definitely on the road map. We're excited by the platform and the scale of the opportunity."
Here's a demo video on how Gliider works.