Google’s universal sign-in system, Friend Connect, which just opened to all Websites two weeks ago, now accepts Twitter IDs as a sign-in option. That means when you visit a participating Website that accepts Friend Connect as a log-in option, you can sign in using your Twitter account. If any of the people you follow on Twitter are also members of the third-party site, they will automatically be added as your friends.
Friend Connect also supports IDs from Google, Yahoo, AIM, and OpenID. For instance, I tried this on the Go2Web2.0 blog, which has implemented Friend Connect, and it gave me the option to use my Gmail or Twitter accounts (I could also use Orkut or Plaxo). I used my Twitter sign-in without a hitch. (Update: Actually, this is a little confusing, but it signs you in first using one of the four credentials above and then asks you if you want to add Twitter).
The race is on between Friend Connect, Facebook Connect, and MySpaceID to sign up the most third party sites. Adding Twitter as an issuing party is a big win for Friend Connect because sites are going to choose the sign-in system that gives their visitors the most options and broadest reach.
There is nothing stopping sites from implementing more than one sign-in system, but at some point presenting visitors with too many options becomes confusing. For instance, we use Facebook Connect, in addition to our own sign-in system. Should we add Friend Connect? Probably. MySpaceID?
It’s only been a couple weeks since these have become widely available, and already universal sign-in is anything but. Here is a list of sites that are live with Facebook Connect, and some example Friend Connect sites can be found here (if anyone has a more comprehensive list of sites live with Friend Connect, please add to comments).
Twitter makes a great addition to Friend Connect. Starting to look a little more interesting now. Although I still like the offerings of Facebook Connect more!
Doesn’t anyone think, that this is just bad news? Phishing is coming to a golden age. Just wait until someone uses your abundant private data in the cloud for something sinister. Oh, the evil!
I want one only solution and his name is OpenID.
This is not necessarily a good idea. This means that people will have to remember which account they used on which google-connect site. I started with GFC with an openID, but forgot all about that and went on with my google ID. If i start using another ID I will have multiple unrelated accounts on GFC which I don’t want (some might want that….)
I think Google needs to set something up so that users can ‘connect’ their ID’s to a single profile. This would solve this issue.
twitter rock but i wonder how to sign up if anyone is making comment i sure want them to teach me.
Very Interesting idea to Google to connect people:) – Good to see is that this is happening!
Excellent write up. Very thorough and insightful.
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I tried it out, and it’s a horrible implementation:
So you want to join a Friend Connect enabled site:
1) have an Google, Yahoo, AOL, or OpenID account
2) create a Friend Connect account linked to above
3) add your Twitter account (giving out your username/password)
4) change settings use Twitter “as your profile”
All that work for what? To use your twitter avatar, and see if anyone you follow went through that same horrible process. Even if you go to “Invite” to share something, all it does it redirect you to twitter.com.
This is a test of facebook connect
that should add to the popularity of it. I added friend connect to my site, http://www.solarfeeds.com and it has been popular so far. I like the gadget.
Scott
solarfeeds
Google Friend Connect is *not* a universal log in system. That is not the target application of Friend Connect. Facebook Connect is a universal log in system. Friend Connect is a way of adding social features to otherwise static websites.
I talk more about it here: http://www.jtol...t-this-straight
Please stop spreading this myth that Friend Connect and Facebook Connect are mano-a-mano on feature set.
Exactly. If you want to emulate the functionality of a site like say, Ning, then Google Friend Connect is what you want. If you’re looking to leverage the Facebook platform and have a unified sign in, then check out Facebook Connect.
Openid is a great idea, but due to the low adoption rate and the fact it isn’t back-ended by a large social network like Facebook, just isn’t appealing enough to use singularly.
Yes, I’m missing this fact in all the discussion too.
For me (i.e. my site, kidsmakestuff.com) this makes a big difference. I already have a user community, with my own authentication method. I could add facebook connect as a authentication method, no problem. But friend connect doesn’t work as it won’t let me “mix” the friend connect users with my existing users. I would end up having 2 distinct user groups who cannot interact properly with each other.
I could implement OpenID, but I don’t get the social features then.
I’m surprised that noone seems to have focused this discussion on the difference in the (publicly perceived) security levels of the participating partner sites:
Personally, I have accounts on Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Google, Yahoo!, OpenID, Joost, and many more. Being a sensible techie, I use different passwords for each, with no significant overlaps between them, so that, if one account is compromised, the rest would still be secure.
Now, the problem *isn’t* that one single login now opens all doors, but rather, that fifteen different ones do. Some of the participating sites in OpenID or Friend Connect or Facebook Connect aren’t exactly mission critical to me, so I use less secure passwords on those sites, simply for convenience. If I use a site or service only once every few months, I want a password I can easily remember, and the weaker security isn’t too much of a problem because my world doesn’t end if some script kiddie gains access to my Twitter account.
However, if my Twitter account leads to my Friend Connect, which leads to my OpenID and my GMail, which leads to my web host, DNS and FTP servers, and to my IM accounts and all my social networks and private photo galleries… Then I need to make up new ultra-strong passwords. For EVERYTHING.
Knowing most people in the world are *not* ’sensible techies’ when it comes to secure passwords, I’m guessing I’m not the only one in a similar situation.
The problem with Friend Connect is that there is no known way to figure out if the user has been authenticated by Google Friend Connect. Any kind of signal would be fine but none has been made available by Google. The point is, through some kind of script, one should be able to recognize that the one who is browsing your site has succesfully logged into friend connect.
Otherwise, its only purpose would be to show “social content” but it doesn’t allow webmasters to use the sign in as a universal logon system
This is going to help Twitter, now they just need a business model.
I just added Friend Connect to my site Montana Guides. I signed up myself using my Twitter profile. We’ll see how it goes.
This is such a great idea.
there seems to be a serious bug in facebook connect implemented at techcrunch :
today I logged in as “Amit Aggarwal” using facebook connect but it was showing me the following message :
“Welcome, Daniel Sims. You are signed in with your Facebook account.
Click here to sign out.”
Anyone having any idea why it’s happening?
This was not meant as an alternative “Sign-Up” method, but rather another social network integrated into Googles Friend Connect options allowing Twitter users to see whether their friends from twitter are on the site, and tweet messages about content found on the community.
It’s a great add on for Twitter.
Also came across a neat Friend Connect directory aimed towards sites/blogs that have integrated GFC at FriendConnectDirectory (dot) com – Looks like there’s some potential there!
LOVE being able to join a site with twitter account. Much rather use my twitter than any other profile. Especially now that twitter seems to have recovered from a rather shaky period earlier in the year. It’s growing strong.
Testing out the twitter functionality with FriendConnect on our website right now and it works like a charm.
We think this is such great idea to open up social capabilities and viral communications for sites that otherwise my not have capability or for the web masters who may not have the know how or the $’s to invest to create the code or buy a script.
That is why we have decided to create a free directory called gfcdirectory[dot]com for google friend connect enabled websites. We encourage all friend connect enabled sites to register your site for free in this directory.
We have enabled some of the gadgets on the site, so you can also see at first hand what they look like. The site is new, but we plan to add more and more features as we all learn more about what gadgets will be available in the future.