Google has recently announced the launch of its social networking tool, aptly named ‘Friend Connect’. This feature will enable Webmasters to enable social networking features on their websites that would help grow their website traffic.

Friend Connect will enable non-social networking website to take upon the looks and features of a social networking website, without losing its basic structure and goals. The Webmasters need not perform any programming for this feature. Just by adding a snippet of code in their websites, they can avail the advantages of features such as user registration, invitations, members gallery, message posting, and reviews, as well as third-party applications built by the Open-Social developer community.

The websites enabled with Friend Connect, will be able to provide their users with the options to see, invite, and interact with new friends. The visitors can also use secure API (Applications Programming Interface) to reach out to their friends from other social networking websites such as Facebook, Google Talk, hi5, Orkut, Plaxo, and many more.

There are some very interesting posts at a Webmaster World thread   for the same topic:

“Reminds me of a post I made awhile ago where I argued that the social networking of the future won’t be "owned" but will be hosted, with "community" assembled "on the fly, for a specified duration as a service" by a "broadcast and listening" system with "credentialing and preliminary/escalating de-privatization" where one’s "profile", i.e., one’s "social graph" won’t be stored by anyone other than the individual and it will be "exposed" only by assent and in measured degree in response to "listening queries or records of interest" communicated to the broadcast and listening system.

At least this looks like a step in that direction and, if anyone were going to pull this off, it would be the likes of Google.
Social networks. On the fly. "Society" not owned, but created, by choosing the apps of social endeavor. Paid for by very targeted CPM ads visible in the UI of the app.Interesting times.”

“Is the reverse process considered?
We will soon release some "sort" of "social" large new site.
Offering such tools as the one mentioned to be available to web owner needing to make its debut in the "social" genre.
My question is: in my case is the "connection/inter-connection" from other "social" to mine facilitated by any existing tool, api etc.”

“A pat on the head is always more enjoyable than a dope slap. Thanks.

I think the system-vision I described was no more than a description of a yearning that is common to most of us. We really do yearn to reach out via the WWW to dialogue - on our own terms. We want to maintain a degree of privacy. We would like a degree of control over who enters our "engagement space", i.e., invitation controls. Our engagement needs vary by issue so social networking as apps assembled on-the-fly makes sense. Let me choose from a menu. Allow for verification (I talked about a 3rd party verification system, akin to an Identity-Equifax) that would escalate trust more rapidly if I "knew" (verified) that this IS "John Doe from Stanford ‘87 who majored in economics . . etc" . .

The WWW is a wonderful connector and exchange enabler. The problem of the WWW isn’t that if fails to connect the world. Rather, it’s that it fails to enable the world to connect, in part due to significant issues of trust and "being known or knowable" and in part due to efforts to "own society", i.e., own members.

I don’t see the old online-social-forms going away overnight. They work within their limits and offer certain built in advantages. Those advantages may erode with time, though, as wise folks with deep pockets realize that it’s better to offer the best socializing service than it is to own those wishing to socialize.

Don’t own me. Enable me. I’ll suffer you background ads, as the price of admission, if you don’t overdo it and otherwise leave me - and enable me - to play with the world.”

“I get a :
Not Found
Error 404

when trying to access their site! Rarely see that on Google.”

“I think we’ll be able to access the pages after the Campfire One event.“

So, finally Google has decided to jump in the social networking pool. Now this is what is called an ‘Entrance’!

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 12:06 am and is filed under Search Optimization. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.