Facebook must feel good. The day after Yahoo! announced that they will soon implement Facebook Connect across all their properties, Google announced the integration of Twitter into Google Friend Connect. While there are millions of users who have logged in through Google Friend Connect, it’s somewhat of a backward model for taking on Facebook in the ongoing identity wars.
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Today Google posted an article about the new implementation process for Friend Connect, the company’s identity service which competes directly with Facebook Connect. In a blog post today, the company wrote, “We’ve heard from a number of you that uploading files to activate your website is not always easy. So starting today, you no longer have to worry about downloading or uploading files.” Instead, you can go download any one of a number of widgets that the company now provides. The only thing you need to be able to do is edit HTML.
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The day has finally arrived, Facebook Connect is now live for all who wish to integrate it into their sites. Just over a year and a half after Facebook announced the launch of the Facebook Platform, the company is rolling out a service which lets any site integrate Facebook’s native social features directly into their site. While integration requires programming know-how, we will soon see the release of plugins which make Facebook Connect integration a whole lot easier.
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Tonight I’ve been seeing a lot of buzz about Friend Connect, Google’s open initiative to take of Facebook Connect. The service lets you login using your Google, Orkut, or Plaxo account. Both MySpace and Facebook decided to opt-out of integrating into the service but bloggers are embracing it at a rapid pace. Last night Google sent out a large number of invitations to bloggers to install their service.

The result is now a large number of blogs with Friend Connect directly integrated with their service. Surprisingly absent from all those sites? Facebook. Take a look at Twitter and you’ll see a surge in chatter about Friend Connect over the past few hours. I’ve had a few friends mention their new integration with Friend Connect. Facebook appears to still be rolling out the service on a one-at-a-time basis.
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