SAN
FRANCISCO: Google has set out to enable all websites, free of charge, to be
imbued with common social networking features as the Internet evolves toward
becoming a giant community along the lines of MySpace or Facebook.
Google Friend Connect was
previewed at a Campfire One gathering of third-party software developers at the
company's "Googleplex" campus in Mountain View, California.
The unveiling of the plan
comes just days after top social networking websites MySpace and Facebook broke
down walls of their online communities to let members share profile information
at other websites.
"Social is
going mainstream," Google director of engineering David Glazer said during a
conference call with reporters.
"What
used to be hard and proprietary is becoming easy and open. It's the evolution of
social networking."
Glazer
described the MySpace and Facebook announcements as "big steps forward in giving
users control over their data" and said Friend Connect is intended to further
advance the movement.
"We see
the web moving toward an end state where people can use any application on any
website with any of their friends," Glazer said.
"Social activity on the web
has been bottled up in a handful of sites. As things mature on the web they
become more open and more interoperable."
Friend Connect lets website
owner's add social-networking features such as registration, member galleries,
message boards, and fun or useful third-party applications called "widgets" by
simply adding snippets of free computer code.
