Facebook Connect, Google Friend Implications and the social web

Most people spend a small amount of time doing things like checking email, reading news or searching for some information on the net which makes these activities interesting but not enagaging. Research has shown that largest amount of time on the net is spent interacting with friends on social networks hence the vision of social web which both Facebook and Google are looking at so lets take a good look at how this will work and what are its implications.

Similarities:

Facebook Connect and Google Friend Connect share the same basic vision of the Social Web. Any site can become social, without having to build up its own social network. Users should be able to access those social features without having to experience the pain of usernames, passwords,

Differences:

1. Google Friend Connect is built on the “open stack,” leveraging building blocks like OpenID, OAuth, and OpenSocial, whereas Facebook Connect is built on Facebook’s proprietary stack. 
2. Facebook has clearly focused on major sites, like Digg, Hulu, and CitySearch, and while simple implementations can be done with very little coding, most will involve a bit more complex development. Google, in contrast, has explicitly targeted the “long tail” of the web, sites that would never dream of writing their own social code.
3. Strategy: Facebook Connect is all about making Facebook more useful to its users all over the Web. Google Friend Connect, on the other hand, is all about making the Web more social, with an approach that incorporates other social networks. For example, the current release integrates not only Orkut, but also Plaxo.

Implications:

Advertising firm Razorfish put together an interesting slide deck  illustrating what kinds of things would be possible if Amazon and iTunes were to implement Facebook Connect. It's a very good jumping off point for conversation about the possibilities in general, so its embedded below. Meanwhile I am testing Google Friend Connect  on my blog and you can make any comments about this blog on the wall which can be seen below the post as well as join this blog's community if you wish to. ( via RWW and Real Macrea )

More Social:
Forrester Social Web Participation Increasing
Online Reviews most important in purchase decisions