Google Friend Connect vs. Facebook in the Social Data Portability War
Will Spencer
June 02, 2008
Google has released a statement about Facebook blocking their Friend Connect feature. Google´s Friend Connect feature allows users to bring profiles, photos, and connections they make from one social network site to other parts of the Web. Facebook has recently blocked the use of this feature on their website.
Facebook states that the reason for their move was to preserve user privacy. The social network site insists that it has carefully studied the Friend Connect feature. They have expressed concerns that it could be a threat to the privacy of their users. Facebook´s developer Charlie Cheever said in an official statement that the feature would not be able to protect the information that users upload on their site. Cheever believes that the user´s information will be distributed to other parts of the Internet without their permission or notice.
Google denies the Facebook claims. They insist that their feature only contains a user´s log-in name or user id, a photo, and their Friend Connect ID. According to Google, the information attached to the users of Friend Connect only contains links to social networking sites where the data is located.
Google´s Friend Connect allows third party sites to easily add social networking functionalities. This is done by embedding a code that allows Friend Connect users to interact with their friends on the site. The third party web site can also add social applications developed by third-party programmers. Activities that users do on the third-party sites can also be broadcast to other social networking sites.
Google´s Friend Connect is the latest in a wave of features that promote social data portability. MySpace and Facebook each has their own versions of Google´s Friend Connect feature. MySpace has Data Availability and Facebook has its own Facebook Connect.
Social networking has been a recent trend with the rise of websites such as Friendster, MySpace, Multiply, Facebook, hi5, and Orkut among others. The development of data portability tools aims to allow users to use only one set of profile information and contacts for all of their social networking needs. Several companies are aiming to be the first to create a successful data portability tool so that people will still be using their feature even when they are at another social networking site.
Facebook states that the reason for their move was to preserve user privacy. The social network site insists that it has carefully studied the Friend Connect feature. They have expressed concerns that it could be a threat to the privacy of their users. Facebook´s developer Charlie Cheever said in an official statement that the feature would not be able to protect the information that users upload on their site. Cheever believes that the user´s information will be distributed to other parts of the Internet without their permission or notice.
Google denies the Facebook claims. They insist that their feature only contains a user´s log-in name or user id, a photo, and their Friend Connect ID. According to Google, the information attached to the users of Friend Connect only contains links to social networking sites where the data is located.
Google´s Friend Connect allows third party sites to easily add social networking functionalities. This is done by embedding a code that allows Friend Connect users to interact with their friends on the site. The third party web site can also add social applications developed by third-party programmers. Activities that users do on the third-party sites can also be broadcast to other social networking sites.
Google´s Friend Connect is the latest in a wave of features that promote social data portability. MySpace and Facebook each has their own versions of Google´s Friend Connect feature. MySpace has Data Availability and Facebook has its own Facebook Connect.
Social networking has been a recent trend with the rise of websites such as Friendster, MySpace, Multiply, Facebook, hi5, and Orkut among others. The development of data portability tools aims to allow users to use only one set of profile information and contacts for all of their social networking needs. Several companies are aiming to be the first to create a successful data portability tool so that people will still be using their feature even when they are at another social networking site.