Google launched Friend Connect

Video introduction:

Effects I can think of immediately

1. You can get the information about where has your friend been on the internet

2. Integration of the internet identity. You don’t need to register for multiple sites to comment, just use your goolge account or facebook account.

3. Social network applications can now work on sites which get involved in Friend Connect.

e.g. http://www.ingridmichaelson.com/ilike/index.html

I take Friend Connect as one big step towards the integration of the existing internet services. Imagine after this, you can use just one identity to leave footprints in multiple forums, blogs and comments boards, and then you can trace back your footprints on the internet by clicking the history button in one single account. That information can also go across your social networks.

Incorporating with social network applications (opensocial app, facebook app) is also powerful.

So another point I want to make is, if you’re making a social network application, you may also consider it as an application which may work on other Friend-Connected sites. That implies two aspects:

1. As a site builder, you can show the content in your social network application on your own site. E.g. http://www.ingridmichaelson.com/ilike/index.html, the artist’s showing the content of her iLike.

2. As a site browser, you can use your social network application across different sites. Say you have a daily reading sharing application in your Facebook. When you’re browsing a news site which incorporates that application, you can just drag the news link to the application area and it automatically generates a reading post on your Facebook profile.

The second point is more from my own imagination, but it should be one of the future directions of this Friend Connect.