January 24, 2009 by Mark Isle
Google Friend Connect is now available to all websites. The application for sharing social networking data between sites has been around since last May though only for some sites, and with admission by invite only.
Friend Connect is basically a tool for moving all your friends information, pictures etc. from site to site. Say you were signing up to Myspace for the first time, but you had a Facebook account. Friend connect would import every friend it could from Facebook to Myspace along with your personal information. You’d be connected to everyone you know on the new medium and your profile would be already filled out.
Such is its usefulness and backing from Google, Friend Connect stands a really good chance of becoming a household name. However, it is far from the only application that does this; Facebook has a similar service called Facebook Connect which, in response to Google Connect’s move, has just been opened up to all websites as well. There is also something run by Myspace called Data Portability which looks like it could compete as well.
One of the clever things about Google Connect however, is that it isn’t limited to social networking sites. It also allows traditional sites to incorporate social networking elements by downloading widgets. Eventually there is even going to be advertising within these widgets to help you add value to your site experience whilst also making some money.
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