UPDATE (Dec 4th): You can check out Google Friend Connect to the right. Also, as of today Facebook Connect is live to developers. Game on in the distributed platform wars!
It’s here, or at least it has entered my life. I’m talking about Facebook’s Facebook Connect and the huge opportunity to grow your brand’s audience that it brings.
Facebook Connect is
the next iteration of Facebook Platform that allows users to “connect” their Facebook identity, friends and privacy to any site. This will now enable third party websites to implement and offer even more features of Facebook Platform off of Facebook – similar to features available to third party applications today on Facebook. developers.facebook.com
Tech Crunch is the first tech blog to integrate the service. The post announcing Tech Crunch is Now “in a Relationship” has hundreds of comments testing out the service, the most ever.
Some of my favorites:
Adam : And so it starts….why the foreplay? Lets all get chipped!
and
Christopher Spears: “i think it makes commeting more serious, because you post your comment as a “real person” not as a synonym like Troll1337″
What’s in it for TechCrunch?
According to TechCrunch’s Mark Hendrickson, “It makes it easier for our readers to comment and it helps spread our content virally through Facebook. Plus, we can build out a slew of community features using Facebook data”
Why its totally Cool?
Ultimately this tool, much like googles friend connect, represents the next phase in social network expansion. Our connections become distriubuted among many sites, not just within facebook. It utilizes the service’s amazing ability to connect people and share information.
While I think the service is a step in the right direction, there are others who say it isn’t go far enough, calling on Facebook to open their “walled garden” further and allow for data portability.
Not going to happen.
Giddy Up.
Photo Cred: vasta
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