Last December I made a blog post about an alpha release product for Firefox called Glubble. Considering the fact that they are in full-production mode, and it is now a regular part of the way that my family uses the internet, I thought it was time to shower a little praise on a really cool product! At the time of my first post, Glubble was in its infancy, and on my first pass I found it to be completely unusable, although conceptually I thought it was a great idea. Upon reading my blog post, Ian Hayward - founder of Glubble and contributer to the Mozilla project - contacted me and followed up to make sure I was aware when their 1.0 release hit the streets. The enthusiasm he displayed and the kind of personal attention he showed indicated that I should at minimum give it another look. I am really glad I did.

First, let me give a disclaimer. Glubble is not a solution that solves all problems. If someone is knowledgable and persistant, there are certainly workarounds to the restrictions that it provides. If you have a teenager that is trying to circumvent your processes, this is likely not the tool for the job, and you should look at a solution a little deeper such as firewall restrictions. However, if you have a child under the age of 12 and would like an easy to use and reasonably safe solution for allowing your child to be on the internet, I recommend Glubble. Rather than taking the approach of blocking specific keywords or sites, Glubble takes the approach that all content is blocked and that you can then allow your children to see specifically what you dictate. In fact, you can actually allow a site access to one child and not another if you desire.

Glubble installs as a plugin to Firefox. As a Linux guy, I honestly have no clue if there is any alternative for Internet Explorer users, but you shouldn't be using it anyway. :) When the plugin is installed and the browser is run for the first time, it prompts you through either logging in to an existing Glubble account or creating a new one. When you create an account, you become the proud owner of your very own "Glubble". Think of this as a specific hub that your family is attached to. As an owner you can add users, which by default are bound to the restrictions you set, but can also be promoted to manage your Glubble.

When you visit your Glubble home, you will see if your kids are currently online, where they last visited, and more. On the right there is a "wall" (think Facebook) that allows you to leave messages back and forth, and will display requests and approval/declines for new sites.

Here is a shot of my home (click for full size)



Glubble comes pre-setup with scores of children friendly sites which you can granularly enable/disable.

Here is a screenshot of the default sites that are included out of the gate (click for full size)


What's even cooler, is that within the built-in sites, you can even have further granular control of specific elements within them if you so desire. Take a look at this. (click for full size)


Pretty cool huh? As you can see I can allow or remove any particular section. As my children come across a new site that is not approved, they are presented with a screen that explains that the site is not yet allowed and then gives them the option to request it from one of the approved "managers" (aka Mommy and Daddy). Meanwhile, while I am at work and have a browser open, a small window displays at the top of my browser telling me that Hudson or Parker have requested access to whatever site they hit. I can then approve it remotely, which instantlly makes it available for them. Additionally, if I come across a site that I would like them to see and have access to, I can add it from my end. In the two screenshots below, I will add a site I created about my Grand Canyon hike with my dad.




When I click on the +Add button, I am prompted with this....





As you can see, you can quickly build a nice and manageable library of safe websites for your children. Another testimony is the fact that my kids actually enjoy using it. When I recently put a new Linux distro on my son's computer, one of his requests was for me to install Glubble. To him, it is an easy way to access the content he likes. To me, I like the content that he can access!