Facebook Connect Now Open to All Developers
Well, it’s no longer just a PR war. Starting today, Facebook is opening Facebook Connect access to all developers and webmasters interested in integrating Facebook Connect into their sites.
The service, which has been in beta since the summer, allows any site to integrate Facebook’s authentication, identity, friends, privacy, and viral channels directly into any site. The move comes just a day after Google opened its related Friend Connect service to early beta testers.
Over 100 websites have implemented Facebook Connect during the testing period or will release their implementations soon. Citysearch, CBS’s The Insider, CNN, Connected Weddings, and Force.com have launched early implementations.
We have been testing Facebook Connect in recent months as well, and can say first hand that the code and user experience are looking very solid for such a complex product. We’ll launch Facebook Connect integration on InsideFacebook.com soon :)
Facebook says Connect-enabled sites have shown impressive early results in terms of both registered user growth and engagement: “several of these sites” show that 2/3 of new user registrations are generated through Facebook Connect, and those users have “about 50% more engagement when compared to non-Facebook Connect users.” Connect makes it easier for users to authenticate on sites, because they no longer need to create a new account on every new site they want to join.
As more services launch Facebook Connect support, we’ll of course stay on top of the most interesting integrations for developers, businesses, and advertisers.
December 4th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
We’ve implemented Facebook Connect on a couple of clients sites.
Pros:
It’s very exciting to see regular websites come alive with photos, names, and friends. Not to mention the ability to post feed data back to Facebook. I think these standard websites have alot to gain by implementing FBC.
Cons:
Working out the details of how FBC plays nicely with your existing User models can be tricky.
(Also say goodbye to collecting user email addresses because FBC doesn’t want you to do that, therefore you start to become dependent on FBC)
Additionally the login/logout process appears to be global, meaning when you logout of an FBC website it also logs you out of FB as well. Not sure if it was intended to work that way or just a ‘feature’?
December 5th, 2008 at 12:40 am
MJ: I think it’s intended to work that way.
December 5th, 2008 at 5:55 am
MJ: You have implemented Facebook Connect onto clients sites, would you say that it was a difficult process? I am using Google Blogger is that a platform you have experience with configuring?
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