Facebook Connect Readies for Broader Distribution with Digg and Hulu
If the initial development race of Web 2.0 centered around "building a better social network" then the next phase will certainly focus on extending the reach of existing social networks beyond their current domain. How? By using the elements of the social graph as the foundational components that will drive the social Web. Where we once focused on going to a destination - particular social network to participate - we will now begin to carry components of social networks along with us, wherever we go. In the next phase of the social Web, every site will become social.
To date, Google Friend Connect, Yahoo! Open Strategy, and Facebook Connect have all been rushing to take the lead in this next phase. Today, The New York Times reports that Facebook has taken another step forward by delivering Connect functionality to new crop of sites.
While the first group of sites that were allowed to leverage Connect - CBS The Insider, CNN The Forum, Connected Weddings, Global Grind, Govit, Indie GoGo, MoveOn.org, and Red Bull - were a good test case, Facebook is stepping into a whole new realm with its next round of sites - Discovery Channel, The San Francisco Chronicle, Geni, Hulu, and Digg. It's a safe bet that Digg will be the most interesting test case to date.
What Does Facebook Connect Do?
Facebook Connect proposes to make data and friend connections currently held within the walled garden of Facebook accessible to other services. This has two distinct benefits, one for the sites and one for Facebook.
For the participating sites, Facebook Connect provides more social functionality without a great deal of additional development. A new user can opt to share the profile information in Facebook instead of developing a new account. This gives the user access to the site and its services without the tedium of developing yet another profile on yet another site. In addition, users can use the relationship information in Facebook to connect to their friends on the other services. In short, it makes the new partner site an extension of Facebook.
And that hits upon the distinct benefit for Facebook: more data. Before Connect, Facebook's understanding of user behavior was relegated to what occurred on Facebook and, potentially, through third-party Facebook apps. With Connect, Facebook will extend its reach exponentially. In so doing, it will gather even more data on Facebook users, whether they're within the walled garden or not.
Facebook Beacon, Part 2?
One of Facebook's primary marketing concerns with Facebook Connect has been to extend the value of its advertising-based revenue model while - obviously - avoiding the debacle that was Facebook Beacon. That has pushed Facebook to pursue a slow, methodical release of Connect, proceeding with caution to avoid any similar gaffs.
For now, they have the luxury of time. Facebook has continued to roll out their distributed social offering more quickly than the competition. And no doubt, they're learning a few things along the way that will give them a decided advantage over similar services.
But can they turn that early lead into a decisive victory?
Adoption Is the Key
If Facebook beats everyone else to the party, that doesn't mean they've won the race. The true value for Facebook is getting users to adopt Facebook Connect and extend their profiles to these external sites. Adoption will be the true deciding factor.
And that's why this new group of Facebook Connect sites will be interesting to watch. With the first group, Facebook was able to prove the concept had merit. With this latest group, they will be working to prove that users actually want to use the service.
Will Digg users be willing to connect their profiles and begin shouting to their Facebook friends? Is there a great deal of crossover between Facebook users and Discovery Channel? Will enough Facebook users watch the latest SNL skit on Hulu to provide useful data?
It's safe to assume that there is crossover between Facebook and any number of sites. But, the question remains: will the population of users who opt to use Connect be large enough to pay off? It's hard to say. We'll just have to wait and see how Connect performs in the wild.
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Welcome to Hailstorm/Passport 2.0
Richard I can't believe you guys are reporting on this without looking back to Hailstorm and Passport. Are we seriously going to give all our user accounts to Facebook to own?
Posted by: Chris Saad
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November 30, 2008 11:13 PM
I've written a post to clarify http://chrissaad.wordpress.com/2008/11/30/internet-wish-twitter-bot/
@Chris Saad: Just wanted to jump in to confirm... I think this is the URL you intended?
http://chrissaad.wordpress.com/2008/12/01/facebook-connect-aka-hailstorm-20/
Sorry wrong link - this is the right one: http://chrissaad.wordpress.com/2008/12/01/facebook-connect-aka-hailstorm-20/
This is crazy. I can just see a bunch of "Facebook Friendly" or "Google Friendly" sites in the future. What if there are exclusive licenses for sites that use these services? What if your favorite site was once a Facebook site, but is now a Yahoo site? Is it just me, or are we entering the AOL, CompuServe or Prodigy mess that we left in the 90s?
This is Taylor from Govit. We've had FB connect up for 6 weeks, and I count it as a success. Since launch, 61% of all new members joined Govit using FB Connect vs. creating an account. A lot of those people wouldn't have joined/used Govit without it.
Of course, neither Digg nor Hulu are eCommerce sites. But they are well known, high traffic sites, so the presence of Facebook Connect on ...
Hang on, are we saying that Facebook Connect is enabling users to create an identity on a new site and bring all their social graph with them? Or just use your Facebook identity to navigate and share pages on new sites?
The latter is nice bu nowhere near as useful as the first, which would make it a solid rival for OpenID/OpenAuth and all the rest of that stuff which has hardly moved on in the lasy year.
Of course, if OpenID and OpenAuth offered this functionality and enabled the identities and social graph to be stored independent of any specific provider then we'd all be happier...
Ian Hendry
CEO, WeCanDo.BIZ
http://www.wecando.biz
No way to have the same identity in the real world and in the virtual world. If I have a pseudo on the web, it doesn't mean nothing
I am really surprised that nobody read the Facebook's conditions to use "Connect".
It *must* be the primary loging solution to the web site.
Does Facebook really believe that all our customers are their customers?
Think about it: if suddenly Facebook decides to cut the link with you for any reason (You are a competitor in a new market they want to go into)... what about *your* users' data to login/email/etc.???
I think Connect is a great tool for social interactions outside of Facebook. A great example is IndieGoGo, which is on Connect.
IndieGoGo is a site where filmmakers can connect with their fans to get their projects made. Fans can contribute money, promote, and endorse filmmakers. Its a great tool to increase transparency and traction for independent films.
Facebook Connect can further connect filmmakers with their fans, since they can share their info on Facebook on IndieGoGo.
Check it out: www.indiegogo.com
The latter is nice bu nowhere near as useful as the first, which would make it a solid rival for OpenID/OpenAuth and all the rest of that stuff which has hardly moved on in the lasy year.
Of course, if OpenID and OpenAuth offered this functionality and enabled the identities and social graph to be stored independent of any specific provider then we'd all be happier...
Hail to the Thieves
So interesting that a short time ago Microsoft (A closed source company) wanted to push forward a standard (Passport) that would have give users the ability to have one log in that worked for many sites. At the time many in the tech and development community saw this as just another Microsoft Land Grab for our Identity and our Content. Many people saw Passport as a Microsoft effort to finally gain control of the internet by becoming the standard for digital identity.
Today we have no less than 3 closed source companies in a race to become the "Standard" for holding or Identity and therefore having access to the content that we read and the content that we creates.
All of this at a time when there are many Open Source standards that could be used (Openid is just one that comes to mind) that if properly deployed would do the right thing by putting the user/member in charge of their log in as well as their relationships across many sites.
Have we forgotten the lesson of the not so distance past ?
Why do we not see a problem with the big 3 trying to become the proprietary standard in this very important area ?
Why do developers especially Open Source developers continue to build and extend applications for closed source companies that under mind open source standards and ideals ?
Why do users continue to view giving control of their identity and content to these companies as a win, when in fact the win is clearly on the side of the company that you have allowed to take control of your identity and to generate value and revenue from your content. In return for our compliance we do not even have a right to take our identity and our content where we want.
At adelph.us we believe in members freedom to control their accounts, and their content. We also believe that any revenue model should always put the members in the equation first. We believe in the Open Source community and ideals. We know we are not the smartest guys in the room and trust the our community of members and developers.
Break the chains of the old web 2.0 model. Do not give your content or your software development work to closed source old world companies they only seek to profit from you