Google Brings Social Networking Capabilities

From etech.eweek.com Google Opens Up Social Networking

While many site providers have been intrigued by the idea of adding social networking capabilities, for the most part efforts in this area have been unsuccessful. This is mainly due to the fact that the last thing most people want to do is join yet another social network, especially one that is tied to a specific Web site.

But this week may see a big change in the ability of Web sites to add social networking capabilities. Both Google and Facebook released services that make it possible for Web sites to easily add social networking features that don't require visitors to join a brand-new social network.

For the last couple of days I've had the chance to test out the beta of Google Friend Connect. Google Friend Connect lets any Web site operator easily add functionality to a site that lets visitors join the site, see other users of the site, and participate in social networking activities such as commenting on and rating content.

From a strict feature standpoint, there isn't much in Google Friend Connect that seems all that new. In fact, Yahoo's MyBlogLog service has been providing similar capabilities for some time now.

However, what makes the Google Friend Connect service stand out is its extreme openness and its potential for near-unlimited extensibility. That's because, rather than using proprietary technology, Google Friend Connect heavily leverages open technologies such as OpenID, OpenSocial and OAuth.