TravelMuse and Gliider kiss and make up, but the end is nigh

Rumours of Gliider's demise have circulated for a while, with CEO Jordan Stolper hinting that he is focusing efforts on Storydesk - but it is rather funny how things turn out.

Gliider, for those with memories going back to late-2009, was one of a number of startups that appeared in the rush to develop trip planning websites, allowing users to research and create trips, and then share around their networks, etc, etc.

The New York-based Gliider's uniqueness was in its development of a widget that sat in a user's browser window, giving them the opportunity to tag travel-related web pages and then arrange and edit within the Gliider system.

Clearly something went wrong - or the prospect of working on Storydesk was more enticing than trying to grow another trip planning site.

The Gliider service will be officially "retired" on 15 February (although the site has already switched to a dead-end holding page), when a user's trip data and the widget will no longer be available.

Users are being urged to transfer their Gliider accounts to fellow trip planner TravelMuse - now a "strategic partner". An email sent to Gliider members this week says they will have "full run of one of the web's leading travel planning sites".

TravelMuse's new owner, Travel Ad Network, welcomes the move.

Director of product management, Ayalla Barkai, says:

"Previously, TravelMuse and Gliider were competitive players in the emerging trip planning space and it is refreshing to see them joining forces within Travel Ad Network. We look forward to enhancing the trip planning and travel inspiration experience for all TravelMuse users, be they existing, new or previous gliider users."

Barkai's comment around "competitive players" is probably a bit of an understatement.

Many will remember the very public falling out between Gliider and TravelMuse in May 2010, when the pair traded blows via Twitter after TravelMuse developed its own bookmarking widget tool.

Gliider famously said: