Google's turn: Friend Connect is live, too
Google, likely in reaction to the official rollout of Facebook Connect, has opened up its universal log-in system, Google Friend Connect. Journalists on Thursday received a hurried e-mail saying, "Starting today, any website owner is welcome to add Friend Connect to his or her website -- no need to be whitelisted. We'll be posting on the Official Google Blog soon with additional details."
As with Facebook Connect, the advantage to users on Friend Connect sites is that they can register using a log-in that they're comfortable with and probably use every day--their Google or GMail ID and password.
Friend Connect appears somewhat easier and more straightforward to implement than Facebook Connect. Also, Friend Connect is linked to Open Social. "Any website that implements Friend Connect becomes an OpenSocial container, capable of running OpenSocial applications," the e-mail said.
Friend Connect can also update social services like Orkut and Plaxo, but nothing with the size of Facebook's network.
Google makes it easy.
I still give the nod to Facebook Connect in this stage of the battle for the ownership of online identity. I do like the Friend Connect features, but Google doesn't offer site managers the free marketing that comes with the Facebook program.
Rafe Needleman writes about start-ups, new technologies, and Web 2.0 products, as editor of CNET's Webware. E-mail Rafe.
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Thanks for the note, I am updating the story. You're right that the game is a marathon, however Google has no social network counterpart to Facebook.
-Rafe
I think the real threat to Facebook is not that Google has a social network, it's that they can integrate it with their other services (Gmail, Gtalk, Gcal, Docs, Picasa, Maps, etc) in a way that Facebook could never come close to achieving without several years of heads-down development.
I guess the ONE potential benefit I can see is not having to go through the process of registering with a site... but other than the 2 minutes that might save, I don't get the whole thing, it seems redundant. Please enlighten me!
Also, I don't think we'll ever get to a point where the web is totally open - the thing it seems like people forget is that these are all individual, separate, corporations, whose #1 goal is to benefit their shareholders - i.e. increase profits!
OK, GFC can be implemented in minutes and will suit websites with no social elements in place at all, but it doesn't offer enough where a community already exists. The ability to truly correspond with the Facebook base through "friending" into those 120 million users, feeds driving traffic and spreading connection virally etc makes it much more compelling.
Ian Hendry
CEO, WeCanDo.BIZ
http://www.wecando.biz