Three’s Company Or Three’s A Crowd? Google To Launch “Friend Connect” On Monday
Michael Arrington
89 comments »
Don’t they say good things come in threes? Well, regardless, we’ve heard from multiple sources that Google will launch a new product on Monday called “Friend Connect,” which will be a set of APIs for Open Social participants to pull profile information from social networks into third party websites.
MySpace launched Data Availability on Thursday, a competing product. Yesterday, in a suspiciously timed pre-release announcement, we heard about Facebook Connect, another similar product (with a nearly identical name to Google’s Friend Connect).
Like Data Availability and Facebook Connect, Google’s Friend Connect will be a way to securely send personal profile data, including friend lists, presence/status information, etc., to third party applications, say our sources. The primary benefit of these services is to allow users to maintain a single friends list and to coordinate social activities across different sites that perform different services. See my post on the Centralized Me for more of my thoughts on this.
The reason these companies are rushing to get products out the door is because whoever is a player in this space is likely to control user data over the long run. If users don’t have to put profile and friend information into multiple sites, they will gravitate towards one site that they identify with, and then allow other sites to access that data. The desire to own user identities over the long run is also causing the big Internet companies, in my opinion, to rush to become OpenID issuers (but not relying parties).
If what we hear is correct, Google’s offering may not be as attractive as MySpace’s and Facebook’s. Google may be keeping a tighter reign on data, requiring third parties to show it directly from Google’s servers in an iframe. By contract, MySpace and Facebook are sending data via an API and trusting third parties not to abuse it (with strict terms of service in case they violate that trust). That flexibility also allows those third parties to do more with the data, including combining it with their own data before displaying it.
We’ll have to wait until Monday for the exact details, though. But what’s clear is that Google wants to get in between social networks and the web sites that want to access their data. By controlling the flow through Open Social and the new Friend Connect product, they can effectively become a huge social network without actually having a, well, social network (unless you count Orkut).
Google’s been scrambling for partners to announce on Monday as well. So far our understanding is they have their own Orkut and Plaxo. Compare that to MySpace (Yahoo, eBay and Twitter, plus their own PhotoBucket) and Facebook, which announced Digg as an early partner.
Another limiting factor with Google’s product is that, unlike Facebook and MySpace, they do not already control user profiles for tens of millions of active users. That means they’ll quickly need to get big partners on board as well. Will MySpace help them? They may - MySpace is already part of Open Social and said on Thursday that they will adopt Open Social initiatives in this space once they are defined. We’ll see.
More details as they come in.
So, is three a crowd or will the openness wash over all of this and make it so easy to share data that we won’t care what aps we start with?
Just as you can call your friend on any mobile network in the world without any glitches, with the same analogy there must be a way to connect to any one in the any social network. This is the first step towards that.
Yahoo/? and AOL/Bebo next?
Interesting…. will have to see what happens!
Looks like Big Brother wants to own/run everything.
Makes me wonder if Google ever becomes what it desires to be - the central of organizing all the world’s information PLUS social identities (with this) , it will be too much power for just one company.
E.g. In the future, if a a stranger wants to find out more about a person (e.g. Mike), they will probably “google” that guy and find out his background details. So, if Big Brother wants to screw with you - instead of putting “high profile blogger”, they can change it to “recent high profile killer”. Will that be a security problem? Too much power and influence?
We cam make a sci-fi movie out of this
But then again, it could come true (playing scary background music) ..
These three announcements represent a huge opportunity for niche networks looking to foster user adoption - by leveraging these powerful export tools instead of asking users to fill out yet another profile, a niche network can now remove a substantial barrier to entry. Seems like this only helps drive traffic *away* from the major networks. Hm, what’s the catch?
Beginning of the beginning…
My understanding is that iGoogle is going to become an OpenSocial container and social network in its own right very soon. That’s why they released an early developer version and I’m sure it’s why they recently promoted it with a bunch of themes from name-brand artists. Google may not have much of a social network now but I woudn’t bet against them fashioning one out of their existing products very soon.
Google will just simply need a good name to compete with myspace and facebook, period.
Orkut or iGoogle or whatever, forget it..
That said, Google is not about social networking, period. (yes, period).
Joe@1: I hope so, I’ve been waiting for something like this for over a year. Next time I’ll start a business! Nevertheless, this is the next step in a world of profile providers and network providers being separable.
instead of a sign up page, it would be cool to give potential users 3 import buttons, facebook, myspace, or yahoo and auto complete their profile.
Communication protocols, and personal data should not be walled in behind proprietary gardens. Ultimately, every website should be a social container, able to run open standard social apps, and securely transit authorized and authenticated, user-controlled, social data. I don’t see this any different than the evolution of blogs, email, or IRC. It’s a damn shame that IM networks except for XMPP/Jabber are still walled gardens in this day and age. Like TCP/IP, HTTP, I think social networking deserves an open, federated, decentralized system, and that ultimately means Facebook’s closed proprietary stuff must die.
A well designed social networking platform should run and connect with with my friends, whether that data is stored in my blog in FOAF assertions, and rendered from my blog, or hosted in some container somewhere.
I don’t believe Facebook’s platform is going to be ultimately more open than Google’s, I think Arrington is smoking crack. If Google has any limits in theirs, it’s merely because it’s a beta launch, and they are worried about security. Google always launches early alpha/beta code often and get community input. Also, “Friend Connect” sounds stupid. I bet it’s called something more Googley and reasonable.
Google is getting serious with its social ideas - they would rather develop their own, rather than succumbing to buy Facebook.
Unusually for them, Google have missed the boat on this one.
The challenge for Google here is who do they bring on board as a partner that has all that valuable profile data? Friendster? Myspace? Hi5? Bebo???
http://facereviews.com/2008/05.....-launching
I will be at Google Campfire Monday anxiously awaiting what comes next.
Rodney Rumford
Data portability: when it rains, it pours.
Remember all the talk about walled gardens, and how the sites would never open up. I believe that the old maxim is true that “people overestimate change in the short term, and underestimate it in the long term”. Given that, what starts as a trickle could - eventually - and before some realize it perhaps - turn into a flood. And at some tipping point there will be a big divide (and opportunity disconnect) between those who are on the winning and losing sides (open vs. closed) of that dynamic/proposition.
free and open all social graphs ! oSocial is a first.
Ok, here is one for google:
Since Orkut is still in beta and fully functional, just rename that ugly shit to Google Social or something more commercial and launch it as 1.0 with all the hype and fanfare.
I guarantee you more than 500 million users in the first week leaving myspace and fakebook in the dust.
It will be interesting to see what google has in store. BUT, I dont think I need any more help with my Social Footprint, its getting quite large!
http://twitter.com/sigepjedi
How many more social networks do we really need? I’ve been using friendfeed to tie them all together and now a few more are launching. When will the madness end?
I wonder which camp will Friendster join. Friendster is the most popular social networking site in the Philippines.
Just as you can call your friend on any mobile network in the world without any glitches, with the same analogy there must be a way to connect to any one in the any social network. This is the first step towards that.
menage de google
pfffft…. all these places are losing it. the data belongs to the users, period. do not let these places get away with this crap. they are just “pretending” to care about data portability but every last one of these companies is laughing in all of your faces of you believe you are getting data portability out of them. what a joke.
Terms of use… iframes… wtf is so special about that a frikkin iframe?? i can show whatever i want in an iframe… i don’t need google’s “permission”. I think i’m sick of people thinking a fucking iframe is somehow “integrating” some service… “mahalo integrates myspace profiles!” … or “readburner integrates google reader”…. GRRRR!!!! it’s an iframe people, it doesn’t take a fancy degree in computer science to “integrate” something with a stupid iframe!!!!!!!! (Google is a disgrace to data portability with this move. do not praise it, ever. cry foul. piss on google. give them shit for insulting your intelligence… ‘do no evil’ my ass. selfish bastards who are hell bent on locking users in come hell or high water…)
anyway… all these big companies are missing it as far as i’m concerned. too bad the dataportability-dot-org initiative doesn’t have the sand to issue a press release to the effects of this comment. (of course they’d have to use less flavorful language… hehehe…. but trust me people, Google has not advanced the cause of Data Portability… mysapce and facebook jokingly “support data portability” but only among their “circle of trust” (which incidentally does not include the user for some reason)… it’s the users data and they should be let to do with it whatever they like… NO terms of use. NO iframe bullshit. Just the users data whenever/wherever they want it… period.
I’m all for a way to export this stuff… just like an OPML file for feeds (truth be told, a lot of profile information can be exported in both vcard and OPML… so we, the users, ought not take any bullshit from these companies.. and don’t let them thwart the REAL data portability movement. (and i’m not talking about the Shadow Government they have sneakily set up right under the very feet of the engineers who wrote all these awesome specs in the first place…. yeah, i’m looking at you again Chris… you’ve done awesome work, truly a freedom fighter for the users… then you let these evil corporations in and they have fucked it all up. I almost feel like the people behind the movement in the first place bent down and done the ol’ ankle grab for Facebook, Google, and MySpace. Wtg crew… TRUE portability FTW… not this ultra privileged circle jerk that the upper crust is hoping we will all accept as “finally, real data portability.”
Google, Facebook, and MySpace all backing the SAME initiative? All willing to release all your data at your request? pffft… what have you fallen for this time young web surfer… don’t drink the fucking kool-aid, alright.
oops.. i forgot to throw Microsoft into the ring there…. you honestly think Microsoft and Google are on the same team, and that team’s end goal is to share data back and forth between each other and the social network you may build in the future? lmao… a more ignorant notion has never existed. honestly… did you all of a sudden wake up in Shangri-La? not hardly people… welcome back to Earth.
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Another thing Google is releasing on Monday is the list of all 50 winners of the Android Developer Challenge. They had over 1,700 entries, and judging just wrapped up last week.
One of the winners already announced is Android Scan, an app that collects pricing and reviews for anything with a barcode. Check out the quick 3-minute video in action on real barcodes: http://scan.jsharkey.org/
If they were smart they would do what http://www.shopandsave.com did
private classifeds messageing.
http://www.shopandsave.com. tak a look at there forms they are on a rampage to be the best tech company. Im not sure what to think about this but it looks like craigslist.com may be in danger
Let’s see what is in store from Google. But, what bout privacy issues?
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It was a mess before, and it appears it’s going to be a mess afterwards. Big difference being that users will get in the short run get only marginal utility while there’s a big tug-of-war going on around them.
I’d say the company who wins gets its program secured by as many of the new startups as it can. For me anyways it’s not going to really provide utility where I already have accounts set up and all right? And if the new players are ignored in favor of the in-crowed it’s just gonna go nowhere.
Also, I never want myspace holding my data.
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Vikram
The thing is I am not sure what useful information Google has to add to anyone’s social graph. Orkut is hardly used and I am quite sure that everyone you have ever received a mail from in GMail is not a social graph you’d want to take to any other site.
The general move towards data protability is welcome though. We run a sales leads and referral network for business wich is underpinned by social networking methods. That existing Facebook users in business could use our site easily and start gaining benefits quicker by bringing over existing contacts would benefit everyone.
I’d be keen for us to join with Facebook Connect and also Google Friend Connect for access to its GMail and Adwords users.
Ian Hendry
WeCanDo.BIZ
http://www.wecando.biz
Google is become a Microsoft Clone. Copying technology that others have patented. It could soon be in BIG trouble.
But then Google, Microsoft are the cowboys of the software world.
The idea of universal id is not new but it has recently caught attention.
So like Microsoft copied the mac interface for its windows and thereafter with every thing they created, Google is copying the likes of Facebook and others.
Interestingly, the idea of having personal data portability and universal id caught the imagination of companies such as Facebook, Google, etc after a relatively obscure company called NetAlter Software published its patent called NetAlter and outlined on its website that it proposes to develop an alternative to the internet or the present web.
So, wonder what their lawyers are up to!!!
Google, Yahoo, Microsoft & AOL own hugh social networks - their email services. Google owns the graph of all people that joined their service through invitations, sorted by friendship degree (you invite your best friends or family first). This is a huge asset.
First I need to find some friends