I’ve been doing a lot of waiting “fun” waiting these days as a number of services are competing to best each other in the social-widget space.
Google Friend Connect and Facebook Connect are two of the larger players that are trying to win our coveted attention, and even more coveted real estate on our blogs and websites.
Two recent additions to the former have me taking another look at it: Twitter Integration and the Google Social Bar. You can see both in action on ChurchCrunch.com right now.
Essentially you can connect your activity through the system with Twitter, which is a huge win, and the Social Bar is a constant “presence” on your site, either at the top of the page or bottom (I’ve chosen bottom).
Although it doesn’t necessarily bring much more “out of the box” (and thus doesn’t get me overly excited) the obvious question is this: When are they going to add Google Chat to their vanilla installs?
Adding a persistent chat system to a blog or a website could provide some amazing functionality for ministries, church websites, and beyond. Just think of all the possibilities?
Take a look and let me know if you use the Social Bar. I’ll probably take it off in a week or so, but Google… I’ll be waiting for the “goodness.”
Yeah, I have been waiting for something to come of this Google friend connect and still nothing.
<rant> It does not give site owners enough information through the API so there isn't much you can do with it other than a Facebook like wall application. Mashable has 9500 members in Friend Connect but it provides no value to the site.
If intensedebate or discus had API integration with GFC you could sign up for a site and maintain a login when you comment. Then you start seeing value of a single-sign on for web applications and building a community with GFC. </rant>
sweetness, worth waiting for.
haha. rant. it's coming man… i can feel it…
another reason to host your own
word up. …
i think so.