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.

[JohnMcCrea]

One point of clarification: Google Friend Connect also has the "free marketing" feature. In fact, with Google Friend Connect, I can share my activity streams to multiple networks, including Orkut, Google, and Plaxo at the moment. I would imagine more choices will be added over time. I think it is *way* to early to be declaring a winner in this race. Opening up the Social Web will be a marathon, not a sprint.

[rafe]

John,

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

[cnet.aaron]

Uhhh, excuse me? Google's Orkut is a direct competitor to Facebook. In Brazil and India, Orkut is much more popular than Facebook, and those two countries account for nearly 70% of the user base. Sure, they don't have a ll the fat, rich Americans to push advertising to, but it's a significant number of people.

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.

[rafe]

Good points, too. I don't intend to shill for Facebook here. I just think they have the better product for the US market today.

[nttwrs]

If Google has Friend Connect, and Facebook has Facebook Connect (and I'm sure others might have their own on the way?), doesn't that just bring us back to square one (or maybe two or three) in the whole open movement? In other words, where we're basically stuck using our Facebook Login in some areas and our Google login in other areas, and whomever might come out with another "connect"? Don't see how it's any different than we already have it now... and if you just use one email address for all of them, what's the need for all of these connect programs? Heck, if I log in to Facebook with my gmail address, then won't my Facebook Connect and Google Friend Connect logins be the same anyway? :)

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!

[WeCanDoBIZ]

Having looked in depth at both (I already have a GFC test page up at http:///www.wecando.biz/googlefc.php is anyone wants to see what you can do in 20 mins) there is no doubt the purists will be cheering on Google Friend Connect because of its open standards support, but Facebook Connect is neatest.

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

[zcollvee]

when is fb connect coming to CNET?

[traderruss]

We are developing a local search directory, http://click2connect.com and we need to create user profiles for advanced features. Would you recommend we use facebooks Connect service rather than trying to create our own user profile system?