Just checked out AdaptiveBlue's product, SmartLinks. It's a widget that changes your links. It's easiest just to check it out. So check out the link below:

ENDGAME

There are some good things about this. First, it can automatically turn Amazon links into affiliate links. A small thing, but enabling and encouraging monetization is key in my opinion, as that is the key to creating economic webs of growth. Second, it clearly creates value through attention allocation, and reconstructs media to do so. This is very consistent with the overall economics of the web.

So it is clearly creating value.

The downside, though, is the costs it introduces. It essentially introduces greater interaction costs by adding these steps:

1. I have to mentally process the SmartLinks indicator (blue square next to the link)
2. I have to click on the blue square
3. I have to wait for the popup to load
4. I have to mentally process the popup
5. I have to click on a link
6. I have to wait for the destination page to load
7. I can then enjoy some content (assuming the destination site is done properly).

I really would love to find a way for interaction costs to be lowered here. Unfortunately, one major issue still is copyright; if AdaptiveBlue didn't have to worry about copyright crybabies (or if they chose to ignore them and/or incentivize them), they could pull the content in and remix it with user experience in mind, thus allowing for a better user experience.

Anyway, I like SmartLinks, although I am concerned about the user experience cost it introduces, and think it could be too high relative to the value proposition of the widget. Ultimately I think an innovation in user experience is really needed for many aspects of the semantic web, and as such will be a part of the next exciting phase of the web.