On Monday, Facebook released a sample site that demonstrates how Facebook Connect (previous coverage), their new authentication methodology for logging into third-party web sites, will work. On the demo site, instead of registering for an account, you're presented with an option to use Facebook Connect instead. The Facebook team built the site so developers interested in using this technology could see how it works. The source code was provided as well.
The sample site is called The Run Around and it's just a simple site that lets runners log their runs and chart progress on their workout routines. From the homepage, you're presented with two options: on the left, you can login with a username and password and on the right, you can click the Facebook Connect button.
Of course, before you can login, you have to register. When you click the link to register, you have the option of filling out the fields to provide your username, password, name, etc. Alternatively, you have the option of clicking Facebook Connect.
When you do so, a dialog box appears and all you need to do is click the "Connect" button to authenticate with the site (assuming you're already logged in). Note there's also a checkbox that you can leave checked (the default) or uncheck. It reads: "Let this application publish one line stories without my approval."
Click the button and you're in.
Once you're logged in, you'll see that your Facebook friends already using the site will already have been added for you. Although you know that's one of the main purposes of this technology, it's pretty amazing to think that at last, the tedious process of finding and adding friends will finally be over.
Let's assume for a minute that Facebook Connect really takes off and is available on every social web site you can think of. If that's the case, then the only way to really make that friend graph of yours portable and easy to use is to add all of those friends to Facebook...does anyone have a problem with that?
Not long ago, Facebook established itself as a place to share your personal activities on the web. Here, people share family photos, videos from social gatherings, and post personal comments on each other's walls. Facebook, at least back in the beginning, was a social hangout - not some place where you would want to "friend" all of your colleagues, or heaven forbid, your boss. In fact, people using Facebook tended to use it for personal - as in "real life" - friendships only. Not a place where they friended everyone under the sun. (That was MySpace, if you'll recall.)
But on the new social web, nothing is really private anymore. People are lifestreaming their every action and friending complete strangers on sites like Twitter and FriendFeed solely because they share the same interests. If those relationships are valuable enough to you that you want them to be portable, then you'll need to start friending everyone on Facebook, too. Since that's the case, it looks like you might want to dig into those privacy settings after all.
Comments
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ClosedID anyone?
Why can't anyone support open standards in this area? How much better would it be if whenever you added a friend to ANY service, all other services knew?
Posted by: Zach Beauvais
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August 7, 2008 7:02 AM
Facebook Connect is extremely interesting and along with the OpenSocial initiative will probably change the face of the web in years to come. However, these different initiatives need to agree on a common standard otherwise it'll just be another Passport story.
Part of the challenge I suspect is that the larger players are still figuring out what the monetization opportunities are. The social graph is their biggest asset and even though something like OpenSocial is hugely beneficial to end users, it commoditizes this asset. Its just something that they'll need to figure out.
Posted by: Shiv Singh | August 7, 2008 7:35 AM
The question is - can you invite your facebook friends to the 3rd party site? or is this more of the one-sided "facebook everywhere".
If I discover a person I would like to friend at the other site, is facebook updated?
Do I have to run two seperate "friend" components for my site - one for facebook and one for organic - or is there a way to marry the two on my site so it's not completely dominated by facebook?
If future commenters have any of these answers it's greatly appreciated. Until I know these, I will assume the only benefit to third parties is bypassing the signup form while the primary benefit is for facebook.
Posted by: Justyn | August 7, 2008 7:42 AM
Zach, I agree! You want facebook to control your whole digital life. I have already heard of cases that peoples account has been canceled. So if you publish everything on facebook and they take it away from you, you lost!
The solution is for YOU to keep your OWN data. Have a FOAF profile and host it. Then start changing the way social networks work. Instead of them hosting your data, you host your own data, and they can get it from your FOAF. That is my vision of the Social Semantic Web
Posted by: Juan Sequeda | August 7, 2008 7:53 AM
As a developer it is so easy to create applications that are open. The standards are all there. Most of the development frame works have hooks that make it easy to be open.
To close a silo they way that Face Book has takes careful and calculated planning.
For me the way that Face Book has gone about the entire process of building an application to control and close in members data that does not belong to them is wrong,
It is "Your" data. You should be able to have a way control it the way that you want. The company that has your data should also ask you what if it is o.k. with you for them to lock your information in their silo.........Oh I just read that Face Book employees are selling some of their stock at valuations of 4 billion dollars....Most of the value of that 4 Billion is earned on members contributions....Will any of the member contributors to Face Books large valuation have a chance to cash out on the value that they have created ?
Posted by: william | August 7, 2008 8:00 AM
I like the concept but this kind of thing is probably going to lead to fake-facebook-connect login pages for malware purpose
Posted by: Jahmon | August 8, 2008 12:29 AM