ParisLemon » On Facebook Connect

On Facebook Connect

fbconnect_connect I like to think I have a good intuition about things. I just knew Facebook would overtake MySpace when I saw it, even though everyone was already on MySpace and Facebook was still just for students. I knew Twitter would be big, even though most everyone else at the time thought it was one of the stupidest things they had ever seen. I knew the tech crowd would love FriendFeed. I knew both Colin Farrell and Clive Owen would be movie stars before anyone had ever heard of them. I even knew the plot of Gremlins 2: The New Batch before it was made. You, know all the important things in life.

But these were all my intuition because I didn’t base any of them on real rational thoughts. I just had a feeling.

My new feeling involves Facebook again. I just have this feeling that Facebook Connect is going to be massive. The problem is that as I’ve said here before, I don’t really follow Facebook all that closely anymore since my colleague at VentureBeat Eric Eldon does, so I can’t really say why I think it will be huge — it’s just a feeling that I get during my days hoping from website to website.

On a very general level, I think it works for the same reason that OpenID should work — that it’s a singular log-in to remember — except that OpenID seems to be too tech-centric and jargon-y to ever take off. Facebook Connect is not. (And yes, I know they’re working together on some of this now.) And it can do a lot more. It can connect all of this stuff that we’re doing on the web in a coherent way.

Of course Google will want us to use its system, Friend Connect, but to me that it just feels like a slight variation on MyBlogLog (which Yahoo bought and let get overrun with spam). MySpace has its own system too — I know absolutely nothing about it. Others have their own systems as well. But I just don’t get the same vibe about those that I do about Facebook’s.

I’m sure people will have plenty to say about Facebook’s control of data and what not. But to me, something out there has to be able to tie a lot of this stuff we do online together. It’s just becoming too much. I can barely keep up and I’m online 18 hours a day. I think that binding agent will be Facebook Connect. I just have a feeling.

Post by MG Siegler on 03/02/09
Comments

qthrul

Illustrating this point, I had to login to intensedebate to comment here.

:)

Maybe Susan Powter [1] could be the spokesperson for getting everyone to drop the 8 different outsourced comment services -or- compel those services to allow for a FBC in all profile entries.

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p063wg78Yss

MG Siegler

ha ha yeah i should implement facebook connect if i'm going to gush about it.

awesome footnote by the way.

Web Marketing Firm

I agree, it's going to be big. Google could overtake it, but Facebook just has all that buzz behind what they're doing already. Given what they have been doing with user data lately, however, makes me skittish about giving them direct access to all the social sites a I frequent - but I know, that's just me.

MG Siegler

google has yet to prove its social prowess to us all. we keep waiting...

pierre derome

I agree. About 1 out of 3 inscriptions on my (very) young site are facebook connect, and I've just put "connect" in, not yet all the social free wall to wall news propogation you can add. I really really like OpenId but I haven't put it high on my todo list.

However, Facebook Connect is not easy to manage on a site, for instance clicking on a member picture takes you to Facebook and off from your site :( and the way we need to ask permission for publishing stories etc. is (to me) cumbersome.

In the end,the important thing is: any which way you can ride a big wave is cool !

Scabr

Best solution would be Twitter Connect but it's absent.:(

Ron West

I would agree with Scabar - best option would be Twitter Connect but I agree that Facebook Connect will be the winner. Number one reason it is simple - it couldn't be easier. Second reason is that as people get more involved with communication through the Web they will demand a centralized approach.

At some point people will say "I remember when my comments were spread all across the web and it was difficult to track my conversations".

igniman

fbconnect greatly simplifies signups but people also hesitate to share their 'sensitive' facebook details with unknown sites. there should be an option for people to create a 'connect user name' - personally i don't like to sign my posts using my full name. the reason it's going to be huge is the sheer volume of facebook. btw. i 've implemented fbconnect in my new site if anyone wants a look: http://www.popdigs.com/

@Ron west: it's still not clear to me how they will be able to track their comments across the internet (not all sites post news stories)

Dave

I do not like facebook that much, I only use it with close friends and others who I have at least talked to on other sites like twitter and myspace. Unlike some people, I only have 30 friends there while I have 250+ "friends" on twitter and about same on myspace;

valencia

i think facebook is a great connector of peps. and i don't mind using it to connect me with famous people,like david tlale,beyonce,mc mandla& thandiswa mazwae.