Google Introduces Friend Connect

Google released a preview of Friend Connect on Monday. With this service, website administrators can easily add social networking features to their site. Friend Connect works with Openid, Opensocial and Oauth.

A website owner who would like to add some social features to his site has with Friend Connect only a small piece of code is needed to enable functions such as user registration, invitations, a member gallery and posting. In addition to the functions that Google itself provides, it is possible to use applications that have been developed by third parties with the help of the opensocialAPI from Google.

With Friend Connect you can build your own network of friends, but you can also make contact – via a secure connection – with existing acquaintances on Facebook, Orkut, Plaxo and Google Talk.

The preview has officially launched on the Google Campfire Oneevent, a gathering that Google hosts for developers to showcase the latest in Google’s stable and get feedback from developers. The event will take place on Google’s campus.

The website musician Ingrid Michaelson will kick off Friend Connect. Through the Google service, visitors to Michaelson’s website can use the network of iLike, a site where people can connect with each other through music. They can view comments from visitors, add music to their profile and see which of their friends is going to a particular concert.

The service is currently only available as a preview for a handful of selected sites. Interested parties can register from today via the Friend Connect website sign up. In the coming period, more sites will be allowed, additional functions will be added and the reactions of the beta testers will be processed.