Social Networking Journal

Google Friend Connect

Google Friend Connect is Google’s latest bid to dominate the world of social networking. The idea is simple, which is the bread and butter of Google. They take simple ideas and scale them up to a huge operation. Google Friend Connect is a set of standards that query social networking APIs and allow users to customize their websites with gadgets that access those APIs. This makes people’s websites more active, and it puts the social network in the background.

The idea of Google Friend Connect expands on Google’s gadget vision.

Social gadgets created by Google. Google Friend Connect provides a core set of social gadgets such as member management, message board, reviews, and picture-sharing. The key gadget is the members gadget. This gadget provides core social features for your visitors:

* sign-in with their existing Google, Yahoo, AIM, or OpenID account
* invite and show activity to existing friends from social networks such as Facebook, Google Talk, hi5, orkut, Plaxo, and more
* browse member profiles across social networks
* connect with new friends on your site

The implications are astounding, despite the simple interface. With a bit of programming you can completely integrate your website with all of the major social networks.

Google Friend Connect is the very type of application that Google has always done well with. The tools are free, can be distributed easily, and represent a “win-win” in some way for all parties involved. Inevitably, Google will add advertisements to the gadgets, and the monetization will be immense.

Google Friend Connect is definitely worth a look for anyone with a website.