over 350 million users registered, Facebook has some of its competitors
in the digital identity space legitimately concerned that Facebook
Connect could quickly and easily rule supreme as the ultimate agent for
universal login access and sharing across networks.
This ominous
and very real possibility necessarily provided the backdrop for
Google’s announcement Wednesday that it would be marrying its
own Friend Connect service with Twitter account logins. Starting
yesterday, users can now log in to any of the nine million Google
Friend Connect-enabled sites with a Twitter user name and password.
Much
in the same way that Facebook Connect sites allow for seamless transfer
of updates and information exchange to Facebook from external sites,
Google says that logging in to a Friend Connect site with a Twitter
user name will automatically link the associated Twitter profile. As a
result, tweeting to your followers about the third-party site should
take nothing more than a click.
Though this may help Google
flesh out its digital identity service a bit more, getting Twitter on
board is small-time stuff compared to, say, partnering up with
Facebook. And that’s exactly what Yahoo did, as it announced on
Wednesday that it will be integrating Facebook Connect into a plethora
of Yahoo Web properties, like its Mail, News, Sports, and Finance
sites. Because some of these properties boast memberships in the tens
of millions, this is no small win for Facebook as well.
Check out this video of Google Friend Connect + Twitter in action.
