Google Friend Connect

Google Friend Connect is one of the things to look forward to in the future.

Technology is going one step ahead everyday, and changing the very base of how things happen in the world. Each new tool is like a new foundation to how things are to be done. That's what is the most wonderful part about technology. It frames the rules of the games. How the games are played ultimately depends on how well you can build around technology.

Now, coming back to Google Friend Connect. Why is it so useful? Let us take a small example, say that of Google Labs. Google Labs keeps coming up with new features off and on. How would these features be marketed to the world? Through just online news channels? Probably not. It could also be conveyed through blogs, forums, etc.

Let's take another example. Say, follow B School trends, how they are faring this year, and what each B School has done best, and then frame my opinions about them. After that, I write about that the B Schools on my blog, giving some critical comments on the B Schools. I probably also offer tips on how to take a good decision of which school to join. This information might be very useful to some people, who may not be following online forums like for example.

I thus become an influencer for people choosing B Schools, because when people read my blog, they frame opinions about B Schools on reading my blog.

Now, how would a person identify who are the most important influencers for taking decisions on B Schools? They possibly cannot know how many people read the long list of blogs that rate B Schools, can they? Here is where Google Friend Connect becomes very useful. Say I have installed Google Friend Connect on my site. Now, a person visiting my site, has the option to join Google Friend Connect if he / she wants to, and there is a good chance of the person joining my site only if they like the content. Every new person that joins my site thus makes my site more credible.

Say, in the long run, I have 1000 people on my site, and when a new reader sees the friend list, he / she sees the profiles of the people seeing my site, and also the number of people seeing the site as registered users. That is a sort of a confirmation to the reader that this site makes sense - more sense than a site with lesser number of registered friends or irrelevant friends.

Now, wy not just have your own list of registered users, as many sites have? Why not just show that list to the world? Why subscribe to Google Friend Connect on your site?

Many reasons as I see it. First of all, through Google Friend Connect, you have a sort of an external auditor on your site for giving site credibility. The same "auditor" would be used by many sites eventually, and thus, Google Friend Connect would become the fundamental measurement unit, accepted by a whole lot of people. Apart from that Google Friend Connect allows you to use certain features of ORKUT as well, inviting new people, etc. improving your marketing efforts with no extra costs to be incurred. You don't even need to market it yourself, your "friends" do it - both knowingly and unknowingly. And finally, why bother setting up your own registered user list feature, when you could use something readily available? Even from the user's perspective, the user would not need to create separate logins for each new site he goes to. He can just use his email ID on all sites.

So that's why I think Google Friend Connect just rocks!

I see this as some sort of Market Share building by Google. Personally, I feel everyone who puts Google Friend Connect on their site, has been bought over by Google. Given the simplicity of setting up friend connect in Google as compared to Facebook connect, more sites are likely to have GFC as of now.

Which is why I repeat, IT keeps changing the way business is done!