I was just reading this post from ZDNet, Google launches Friend Connect with mixed reviews , and it caught my interest. Well first as a site owner its an ideal way to make just about any site into a social site very quickly and easily. Well they always say easy don’t they, copy and paste some code, etc… well it should work on most sites that allow you to edit html and allow iframes. Friend Connect was just launched a couple of days ago. It’s not being released yet to the public, but there is a preview release sign up link to add your name to the list on their site (remember doing this with GMail?! That turned out to be a pretty good venture I think! ) There’s a preview video, a couple of example sites set up, as well as it already being integrated in one or two existing sites. it looks very promising to me. well not just as something to make your site easily a social one, but one that opens up the web to possiblilites we haven’t yet imagined. it will be more than a passive web in that regard. Imagine just having to remember one or two identities and passwords! And being able to share what you do on one site with another, or not. as you see fit… I welcome it personally as long as we still have the ability to stand back and be a passive user too and not become just a statistic on some hit counter or how deep I followed the links on some ad goal set up on a website… ok that all happens anyway, signed in to anything or not~ ;) But I do like the idea of it and have always been a proponent of the OpenID movement. Just makes sense and makes things simple.. I like simple :) Of course this being the launch of something new, it will be a work in progress and it seems for now its a bare bones sort of thing with not much control on the aesthetics and tying it into your sites look, but I’m sure as development goes forward we will be able to integrate it seamlessly in a spot on our pages. I’m impressed a lot here lately with the way these large companies now are finally beginning to realise the enduser is fed up of having to feel like he or she has to choose one place over another as their favourite social site, there are always those diehards who will praise myspace over Facebook or vice versa,, well each has its own followers,just they cant interact, well couldn’t i should say. I did see the other day that its now possible to add your Myspace profile and comments to your Facebook profile, and again vice versa. Well that alone was great for me. Oh I am not a big fan of either of them really, but I have family here in the US that uses only Myspace and then Alison and her family and friends are all on Facebook there in the European Union. Well now whichever site I am on I can see at a glance if a new comment has been added to the other.. well i should say it worked a few days ago. As of yesterday Facebook has now banned Google from accessing it so I dont know if thats affected the Facebook/Myspace connection in any way or not. Facebook is saying its protecting its users info as the reason. Well in my opinion thats up to the user isnt it, Facebook is very big on these third party apps to add things to your profile and each one you add is accessing that same info if you opt in to use it. whats the difference? I want to opt in to Friend Connect. I think in this case Facebook has put up a wall that may keep the info in, but it wont keep its users inside for long when they all realise its a whole new web out there. ( shades of the Aol broswer anyone?) Well i will be following this closely and cant wait until its available. I’ll be able to keep up nicely with all my friends, all 7 or 8 of them LOL ;)
May
17
