Facebook Connect Battles For Your Information

In recent months the number of social networks has grown exponentially. At the beginning of this boom there were obvious leaders in the market, networks like MySpace and Facebook come to mind. In that time there have been a lot of networks looking for their place online, attracting niche groups from within the online community. Other networks were developed that had entirely different purposes, but still remained under the guise of a social media tool such as Twitter, Yelp, and Digg to name a few.

Everyone can see that at some point all this development will culminate a scenario where thousands of networks will be fighting for the dominant number of users, the smaller networks either dying out or being bought out. We saw this in a recent purchase of Pownce by SixApart, whose plans are to disable the service, but acquire the users via another service that will undoubtedly be under the sole development of SixApart. Users are given the option to transfer their data, but ultimately there is an example of services being absorbed by larger offerings due to the over abundance and saturation of the market.

Facebook Connect is now becoming the new battleground for social networks. The face of the war for users is changing, and MySpace and Facebook are battling for dominance. Luckily for users, we will ultimately benefit, and the winner is yet to be determined.

Facebook, In It to Win It

Facebook Connect was announced mid-summer with an expected launch of 24 partners on board. The concept was to create a portal by which users of Facebook could sign on and using their profiles, access data on other social networks, all without leaving the Facebook platform. By allowing users to port their profile data to third-party Web sites, several opportunities become available to the user.

• You can leverage your identity across the web in trust environments for ease of use
• Take your friends across various networks ensuring trusted social context anywhere you go
• The piece of mind knowing that the privacy settings you set on Facebook will go with you as you cross the boundaries into other networks
• Actions you make on partner sites will be shared with your friends on Facebook, keeping them in the know about what you like, what you’re doing, and what you find interesting

The idea of the project is to create a deeper, enriching experience using Facebook as the anchor for all your social media experiences.

What’s In It For Partner Sites?

The curious thing anyone would ask is why the networks would come together in such a way that their services rely on large sites like Facebook? For starters, the instinct to survive as to be at the top of the list. Networks are competing for users, all of them hoping to break out and be the leader in their respective niche. Secondly, by partnering you ensure that the millions of users that Facebook states they have will eventually bleed over onto the partnering network.

For example, by utilizing Facebook Connect a user and sign in and perhaps read about Digg. Wanting to be a part of the Digg community the user only has to select the partner and the profile data will port over to the Digg profile creation page instantly making it easier for the user to begin their Digg experience. The benefit is obvious ease of use, but also new users, and the power of link backs which gives the social sites their traction. By sharing contact lists, you increase the power of the network and Facebook benefits by being the hub for all of your social media access.

Currently MySpace is also fighting is also in the fight for your time, your identity and your data on the social networks, but Facebook has come out of the gate with very powerful alliances.

I’m curious to see the outcome of this online competition from two of the largest social community sites on the net today.

Tags: digg facebook Facebook Connect myspace pownce Six Apart social network twitter