Comments on: Google brings Friend Connect to the masses

As expected, Google unveils a preview of Friend Connect, a way to add social features to a Web site without programming. Will it eradicate the social-networking "walled garden"?

[factoryjoe]

That friend connect link is 404'ing... maybe you jumped the gun a bit?

Oh, and I think that it will less be the model of "copying" data between systems, and more the model of live streaming:

http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2008/05/11/thoughts-on-dataportability/

It's not really about vendor lock-in... if everyone is speaking the same protocols, lock-in is less of a problem, just as you can buy many different phones today that all operate on the same phone network.

[saintseminole]

The Friend Connect link in the story leads to a 404 error page. Guess it's not "unveiled" yet, is it? But when it is online, it's certainly something that a lot of folks will be interested in.

[5errr]

i'm looking forward to seeing where they go with this.

[davemc500hats]

>>Unlike Facebook and MySpace, Google lacks a dominant, centralized social-networking hub

well actually, they do... it's calledGmail ;)

[ssjtrunks]

are you guys stupid or something? yah, the link is 404 dead, hence why the article states that the link is INaccessible Monday morning. ugh...

[Chris Brogan]

It's certainly an interesting move. Facilitate the throughput and own the scrubbed and depersonalized data. Imagine those gmail side ads of data being applied to our every social application interaction. Sure, it's scary, but it's also powerful.

Done well, Chris M is right, insofar as if we're all using roughly the same structures, it will play nicely. Done poorly, you get Passport2. I'm leaning towards more A than B, in this case, were I a betting man.

Great write up, Dan.

[Mr.Californian]

If you set up a Google Apps account, will you be able to use this now? I really want to try it out!

[viperpack2029]

What about PWNED.COM? it's blowing up like crazy as the largest social network for Gamers

[viperpack2029]

What about PWNED.COM? it's blowing up like crazy as the largest social network for Gamers

[burtonette]

Ok, now I want the rest of that guac recipe!!!

[e-mail]

[dfarber]

Exactly Dave....just like Yahoo has YMail and plans to make it the hub of its social network dreams...

[jackdaniels08]

Google Friend Connect link: http://www.google.com/friendconnect/

[sachendray]

I remember back in the portal days, there were services that allowed you to add portal tools like calendar, chat etc to your own website, and if I remember correctly it didn't become a rave.
This kinda seems similar. Or am I missing something?

Note that I'm talking about the "concept" of doing what you could do on a big website for your niche audience on your own site.

[WeCanDoBIZ]

For me this is great news as I run a UK-businessf focused social network and Friend Connect has the potential to allow our newest users to get up and seeing benefits a lot sooner, using existing profile and friend information.

I am struggling to see how Google is going to make money from this though. Remember that OpenSocial is a not for profit organisation.

Ian Hendry
WeCanDo.BIZ
http://www.wecando.biz

[ChrisLang]

Let's see if now that Friend Connect is going to roll out soon on Blogger I can clarify this. We have a little more information now.

First of all, Friend Connect is due out any day now with the Followers widget bringing it to Blogger. The Followers widget is Friend Connect, it just depends what code Google feeds it.

Next, when you join a Friend Connect site, it adds the RSS feed to your Google Reader.

Third Friend Connect is how you make friends in the new Google social network that ties Google Reader, Reader blog post sharing (bookmarking) and Gmail all together.

This is the perfect social network. Very hard to spam, unlike Digg, all the while providing very powerful positive indicators to Google.

How are they going to make money? Have you heard of AdSense for RSS feeds?

Feel free to track me down if you need more information. - Chris Lang

[alwleed1]

For me this is great news as I run a UK-businessf focused social network and Friend Connect has the potential to allow our newest users to get up and seeing benefits a lot sooner, using existing profile and friend information.

I am struggling to see how Google is going to make money from this though. Remember that OpenSocial is a not for profit organisation.

Ian Hendry
WeCanDo.BIZ
http://forum.al-wlid.com

[alwleed1]

For me this is great news as I run a UK-businessf focused social network and Friend Connect has the potential to allow our newest users to get up and seeing benefits a lot sooner, using existing profile and friend information.

I am struggling to see how Google is going to make money from this though. Remember that OpenSocial is a not for profit organisation.

Ian Hendry
WeCanDo.BIZ
http://www.al-wlid.com

[rjeem]

<p>For me this is great news as I run a UK-businessf focused social network and
Friend Connect has the potential to allow our newest users to get up and seeing
benefits a lot sooner, using existing profile and friend information.<br>
<br>
I am struggling to see how Google is going to make money from this though.
Remember that OpenSocial is a not for profit organisation.<br>
<br>
Ian Hendry<br>
<a href="http://www.rjeem.com/forum">rjeem.com/forum</a></p>