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Facebook Connect vs OpenID — Which will win?

Written by: Brian Beehler

Article Overview: It’s been a few days since my last post and I must say that I have calmed down considerably since my meeting on Monday. Several things that I got to do over the last few days made the week completely worth it. Firstly, I was able to give a Social Media 101 crash course to my colleagues. I always enjoy doing presentations and when I can help someone, it makes it that much more rewarding. Just to let you readers know, my door is always open if you have any questions.

Facebook Connect vs OpenID — Which will win?

It’s been a few days since my last post and I must say that I have calmed down considerably since my meeting on Monday. Several things that I got to do over the last few days made the week completely worth it.

Firstly, I was able to give a Social Media 101 crash course to my colleagues. I always enjoy doing presentations and when I can help someone, it makes it that much more rewarding. Just to let you readers know, my door is always open if you have any questions.
Secondly, I had a great discussion with one of our company’s leading marketers about how Facebook Connect could be used to simplify and enhance our visitors overall experience. If you are wondering what I’m talking about here is a brief description — Facebook Connect allows a user to use their Facebook ID and password to sign-in to other websites that have implemented the platform. It’s kind of like another Web-wide sign-on protocol called OpenID in that regard, but Facebook Connect has a far greater potential of taking off on a larger scale.
Why is that you may be asking yourself, well, it’s easy to use, understand, and control — and users won’t have to do any extra work to find it or make it function. OpenID, if you’re not familiar with it, lets you do the same thing, it offers a single sign-on solution to third party websites. Most people don’t even know what OpenID is and wouldn’t even understand how to make it work for them. To be honest; I’m savvy with this stuff and I still don’t use OpenID.

Here is an example why there will be more up-take in the use of Facebook Connect; Let’s say you’re visiting a site who has implemented the platform, rather than having to create an account, you just click the Facebook logo and if you’re already signed into Facebook in another window, it picks up your ID and you’re in. Your Facebook profile is then presented to you on the site you just visited. And as I always do, let’s apply this to a business scenario. Here is where the real power of Facebook Connect presents itself. Let’s say someone has just joined your business website by clicking the Facebook logo, and they decided to purchase a t-shirt — if the user chooses — they can fill in a comment card of their shopping experience from your site, have it shot back to their Facebook Wall at the same time it is posted on your site. The comment that they just posted to your site will now show up on Facebook as if it were any other Wall posting. The full extent of their activity will be listed, along with a link to your site for their friends to visit.

Think of the opportunities this presents to businesses with an e-commerce component to their websites. To be able to harness the vast network that Facebook offers through a single click is unbelievable.

Why is it so unbelievable? — Well, let me tell you:

1. Businesses will be able to increase traffic to their sites for the fraction of the cost that traditional methods offer. — click through advertising is dead and doesn’t work! —
2. Businesses will be able to grow their online business quicker than ever before. — One word says it all “Viral” —
3. Businesses will have access to other markets that they may never have been able to afford to go to. — The web truly doesn’t have any borders or barriers —

So as I mentioned in my opening, the week ended strong and I hope that next week brings further progress.

Have a great weekend and live your dreams through the eyes of the unknown!

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Article Tags: brief description, business scenario, colleagues, crash course, facebook, few days, marketers, openid, party websites, protocol, regard, third party



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