A few sources have alerted me to a project that Facebook has been working on: integrating Facebook Connect directly with WordPress. For all you developers that also thought that building a Facebook Connect plugin would be brilliant idea, you might want to stop development. While the timetable for releasing this plugin isn’t clear, there’s a good chance that it will be released in the coming weeks.
Facebook Blog Comments
Facebook Connect is still in beta mode and can only be accessed by developers but there is actual code from this plugin floating around (we actually have a copy of it). This means that rather than having to register for every site that you visit, you will simply be able to login with your Facebook account. Soon enough, it will also mean that you will have access to all of your friends that are on Facebook on any other site you visit.
For the time being, the plugin functionality is limited to comments. How does this work exactly? If you were at f8 then you saw David Recordon of Six Apart, demo the functionality of Facebook Connect comments in Moveable Type. In similar form, you will go to a comment form, click on a link which logs you into the blog’s application on Facebook and then your comments to that blog will start showing up in your Facebook profile feed.
The difference with the Facebook WordPress plugin is that the WordPress plugin is an internal Facebook project. This also means that Facebook wants to be able to own the comments on your site. Anytime you enable users to login via Facebook, you won’t have access to their email address, unlike Disqus and native WordPress comments. That would probably be my greatest complaint.
Blogs as An Extension of Facebook
In the not too distant future, WordPress will be unveiling a much anticipated social network service for WordPress blogs: BuddyPress. The new service enables site owners to integrate social networking features directly into their blogs. If you thought remembering all of your logins was hard before, imagine what it will be like when every site you visit has its own social network.
Find a new friend on a remote social network? You can easily add them as a Facebook friend rather than having multiple locations for all of your connections. So how soon can you expect to launch Facebook functionality into your own site? No timeframe is available yet based on publicly available information.
The launch of social networking features into blogs that integrate with Facebook Connect will directly compete with Google’s Friend Connect service (which already has a service in beta).
Conclusion
While you can’t test out this plugin without being a developer, this is definitely a great first step. It also makes me wonder why Facebook put internal resources to this project when there are countless other developers working on their own WordPress Facebook plugins. My guess is that this plugin was being developed to further the Facebook Connect documentation.
My only complaint remains to be that I don’t get access to a user’s email when they “register” to comment on my site. Leveraging this plugin provides blogs with a great opportunity to gain exposure through the Facebook news feed. Please note that if you’ve tried out the plugin but it doesn’t work, it was developed using the “Kubric” default theme on Facebook. That’s according to documentation provided by Adam Hupp, the Facebook developer behind this project.
Update
We’ve been contacted by Facebook and asked to remove the plugin since it isn’t licensed for distribution. I’ve gone ahead and done so 
Also, they’ve said this wasn’t technically an “official” internal project as he was working on it in his free time. Not sure what to say about that.
![[Inside Social Apps 2012]](http://www.allfacebook.com/wordpress/wp-content/themes/allfacebook2/images/ISA2012_336x100_F_RegisterNow.gif)
![[AllFacebook Stats: Facebook Analytics for Your Business]](http://www.allfacebook.com/wordpress/wp-content/themes/allfacebook2/images/stpro_allfacebookstats.gif)
![[How can Facebook change your business?]](http://www.allfacebook.com/wordpress/wp-content/themes/allfacebook2/images/FMB_A_MAY2011_336x100_F.gif)
Any indication how the plugin will interface with a blog that has Disqus installed? Would it just add it on somewhere around the commenting field?
Comment by pauljacobson — September 2, 2008 @ 4:53 am
Very very interesting!
Comment by Chris M — September 2, 2008 @ 5:04 am
Hi Paul,Unfortunately the plugin doesn't work with Diqus yet.Best,Nick
Comment by Nick O'Neill — September 2, 2008 @ 5:07 am
wow, i've been waiting to hear something like this. I was recently thinking of upgrading my site to BuddyPress when it launches but I was worried that people would not want to sign up for yet another social network. i was hopong someonw would come up with a plugin that use Facebook connect. To hear that it will be Facebook themselves is freat news.
Comment by Mike Belgrove — September 2, 2008 @ 5:15 am
I would never ever ever ever use Facebook Connect for WordPress blog commenting, when something so much more inclusive like Disqus is available.
Comment by shokk — September 2, 2008 @ 5:41 pm
Great News..!
Comment by MGA — September 4, 2008 @ 5:42 am
sixjumps has developed a Facebook Connect WordPress Plugin, with more services, you can see a video of the plugin in action at:http://www.sociable.es/2008/09/09/facebook-conn…..
Comment by Javier Reyes — September 10, 2008 @ 8:28 am
I like people notice all the details and minutiae of everyday little thing could find something attractive and imperceptible to most. Super!
Comment by Marian — November 5, 2008 @ 2:41 pm
I can't wait to see this functionality become WordPress friendly so more and more people can adapt to its' awesomeness!
Comment by eddie thieda — December 15, 2008 @ 3:34 am
What plugin do you use on this site for facebook connect?
Comment by Norm Copeland — December 18, 2008 @ 5:50 am
For those looking for the plugin, it is Open Source on this page:
http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/WP-FBConnect
Comment by Jerome Paradis — December 22, 2008 @ 9:58 pm
Hey Jerome how is it possible to download from that URL?
Comment by Greg — January 14, 2009 @ 2:11 pm
I see only bad text
Comment by Trolltech — April 15, 2009 @ 9:52 pm
Hello
Comment by Dhiraj Danode — June 16, 2009 @ 4:15 am
thanks! good news, but now fixed is it?
Comment by Iklan Mewah — July 2, 2009 @ 9:12 pm
Hm that sounds good but I would like to know more details.
Comment by romonoeroetoko — July 8, 2009 @ 8:11 am
Your news is a cool stuff man, keep it going.
Comment by romonoeroetoko — July 15, 2009 @ 1:43 pm
Great!
http://goran.mignix.com
Comment by Goran Mitev — July 31, 2009 @ 4:48 am
That's good man, keep it going.
Comment by amenodimeno — July 31, 2009 @ 9:43 am
Good story for me but please more details.
Comment by amenodimeno — August 5, 2009 @ 7:08 pm
Good information to me.
Comment by queroeropoo — August 6, 2009 @ 3:07 pm
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog.
Cheers! Sandra. R.
Comment by sandrar — September 10, 2009 @ 5:47 am
Stunning blog and good article. High 5 for u man !
Comment by adamoerikom — September 19, 2009 @ 1:15 pm
Is Sociable's WordPress plugin–that allows direct integration of WordPress blogs with Facebook using Facebook Connect–a competitor to the plugin you talked about here?
Comment by Dr Windenberger — September 22, 2009 @ 6:15 pm
Nice plugin! Thanks!
Comment by Allan Dungca Rodriguez — October 26, 2009 @ 10:23 am
Nice!… thanks for share this plugin
Comment by Robby Hardiyan — December 17, 2009 @ 11:02 pm
hey test
Comment by Hendrik Myland — January 10, 2010 @ 2:20 am
A friend of mine just emailed me one of your articles from a while back. I read that one a few more. Really enjoy your blog. Thanks
http://www.gregreyesceo.com/
Comment by Mitchelle Perez — March 9, 2010 @ 4:43 pm
Do you have any recommendations for adding the “Lightbox” effect for videos inserted to WordPress via LiveWriter. It seems whenever I do a video upload I am stuck with a small viewing area. If I change the default thumbnail size, it screws up my theme. I have seen other sites where a “box” popup and open to show a graphic or video and then the user can close it to get back to the blog.
Regards,
Adam
http://www.IndicatorWarehouse.com/blog
Comment by Adam — May 16, 2011 @ 9:13 pm