Google Friend Connect is my latest social networking trial – partly because other blog community sites have not been too successful in bringing readers here lately and because, as usual, I cannot resist checking out something new. Although released for trial in May last year, the beta version is now available to all.
When I first started writing this article I was the lone friend of my site. As you can see by the member icons in the Friend Connect member gadget, at the top of my sidebar, this has now changed. Initial enthusiasm for new social networking activities means members spend more time participating and adding contacts. This initial enthusiasm tends to fizzle out either because the network is not successful or it is successful and you get lost in the crowd.
Benefits
"You will bring viral social growth to your website. Visitors can evangelize for your site by inviting their friends and publishing their activities to their social networks. Social gadgets will keep these visitors more deeply engaged with your site, and with each other." That was taken from the Friend Connect site but, ignoring the hype, why should you join yet another social networking community when you are likely bogged down in them already? For me the answer lies in its differences rather than similarities:
Why is Friend Connect different to other methods of networking?
- Interaction with others is done via the actual sites that have Friend Connect Gadgets installed. You do not have to go off to another site, as with MyBlogLog, to join a site or add friends.
- In addition to the Members widget (gadget) you see in my sidebar, Social gadgets allow for such things as commenting, reviewing and sharing media..
- Unless you want to add your own site to Friend Connect and include gadgets on your page, you do not have to be a member of Friend Connect yourself. You can sign in with Google, Yahoo, AIM, Twitter or OpenID’s to interact with other members.
- Integration with other social networks is achieved using a member’s Google profile. Clicking on a member’s icon will show not only their blog URL’s but, if they have joined using their Google account rather than an OpenID, other sites they belong to. (Google Reader, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr ……) Twitter users can sign in with their ID and check to see if any of their followers are also using your site.
- Integration of OpenSocial means that independent developers can can create social gadgets and, although the choice is limited as yet, the possibilities are promising.
One disadvantage with adding multiple widgets is that they increase your page loading time at times quite considerably. Adding the widget to your footer rather than your sidebar is one way round this – at least your page content and your sidebar(s) load first, leaving the footer to load out of the fold area.
Friend Connect Page
Friend Connect is not very simple to learn and you may find it hard to install, navigate around the widgets and find other members.. The help is not comprehensive. I have therefore created a Friend Connect Page, which I will update as I find new resources. On the page you will find:
A tutorial and videos covering:
- Joining up with Friend Connect
- Setting up your preferences
- Adding Member and Social Gadgets to your site.
- Managing your settings and members.
- How to add Friend Connect to Wordpress self hosted, (not possible with Wordpress.com) and Blogger blogspot.
- How to find other members
- How to join other sites
Examples of some of the Social Widgets
I have added social widgets to the bottom of my Friend Connect Page show you what they look like and to give you an opportunity to use them, in case you are considering adding them to your own site.. I had a bit of fun finding Google and Social Networking type songs to add to the playlist gadget.
Hope to see you around Friend Connect
Popularity: 14% [?]
I’ve also added the Friend Connect widget but I’m still waiting to see any major results from it. I’m not ruling it out yet but I do feel that it takes up a lot of valuable space on the site for the little return it has given me.
Have you had any results from your widget yet?
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For some reason i have removed the Widget from my blog but i need to get it placed back on there.
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I didn’t realize that Google was entering the Social Networking market. This is exciting, since increased competition in the Social Networking space should help overall innovation and user adoption rates.
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I put Google Friend connect on my real estate blog, but not too many members yet! I haven’t put it on my IMBL site yet, but I’m sure if I like the results I will definitely consider it.
Anyways, I joined yours, and if you want to be sympathetic, please join my real estate marketing one – I linked to it in my name.
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I am not using Friend Connect yet – probably because I do not want to contribute to the success of anything Google.
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Haven’t used Friend Connect yet. Do you know how many users the system has already?
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Looking at the Friend Connect directory will give you some idea.
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I will not look. I will not look.
I am ignoring all the others I belong to at the moment so I cannot add another one.
yet.
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It’s the loading time that makes me avoid widgets on my blog now. I’ve had a few, like Twitter, Plurk, Alltop and some others. Especially when they’re having problems I really dislike it because it can hang your whole blog then and if I’m away I’m not even aware of it.
I welcome some new thinking and features though which Google Connect has, but I still don’t find it “sexy enough”. When will they learn that we users want something more fancy? *giggles*
So far I’m not really pleased with any of the social networks, even though I’ve noticed that Twitter is the one with the most activity lately and find it quite fun with some help of TwitterFox or other applications.
Regarding our visits to each other blogs, we’ve been equally bad at it – life comes in between, but that doesn’t mean that we’re not as good friends as before
So, your Europe trip is approaching, how exciting! September seems like a nice time to go, not so crowded with tourists and not too hot – depending on where you’re going?
The weather in Sweden usually is awful (gray and rainy) in the late half of September, so if going here, come in the beginning of the month.
Let me know which places you have in mind or if you want some tips from me
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Know what you mean but I am too weak to resist
Heard about another yesterday too – only by beta invite as yet but will be up and running soon I think – called thisMoment
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I found the social chat module to be the most useful one for me. It worked fine in firefox, but had issues in internet explorer. I hope they come up with something better than facebook, I hate facebook with a passion.
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I tried adding a Google chat widget to this site a while ago and also had problems with IE. Would be good to have conversations this way in addition to via commenting.
So if the friend connect more like instant messenger or like a message board communication like Facebook offers?
It is more like MyBlogLog as far as the members widget is concerned. Because it ties in with Google OpenSocial other widgets are available allowing chat, comment and review features. All of it is done via member blogs/sites and not via an external website as with Facebook.
I am staying away from anything requires a widget this year. My resolution s to keep my sidebars clean and clear.
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I had to remove a couple of widgets to make way for Friend Connect as I am overloaded as it is.
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I know what you mean. In addition to cluttering up the page, too many widgets can slow down page load times. When I first started a blog, I added every cool widget I found. The blog became really slow until I removed most of them. Some widgets are much worse than others because they request information from another server and wait to load the page until the information arrives.
I recently did a clean up of the widgets on my site, they were making a mess. If it was small and compact and could integrate with others well it might be something I would use. Right now though I don’t want any more mess on my page.
I’m looking in to it myself. I see some are already turned off by it.
Does it work ok with Firefox?
TheBloggerSource.com
Yes all seems fine on Facebook. The only problem I have heard of is with the chat widget with IE. This is only an add on though – the main feature, the members widget seems to work fine in all browsers.
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I think it is smart to allow people to make friends without first having to create an account. We all have too many accounts as it is. That difference should serve them well.
Yes and something new for Google too who demand you have one of their accounts for most of their other applications. As people have to have some sort of openID account they are not totally anonymous.
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I share the idea of free communication,it is funny and rather strange to registrate oneself before saying a word or just shaking hands.
This is similar to favoriting a site via MyBlogLog, BlogCatalog though.
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That’s sounds interesting! I want to give it a try but, does it work with Mozilla Firefox?
Yes, it does work with FireFox. The only issue some have experienced is with IE.
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its about time google comes out with one of these things. hopefully it will be monetizable
I have Google Friends Connect on my blog as well.You´ll never know, perhaps participating blogs are rewarded with better rankings
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It was a really good idea to set up the page so that everyone can go there for a bit of help!! It´s really good when everything is written down in black and white – it really makes everything a lot easier to follow! I like the friend connect idea – it will give bloggers their own small “pictured” community on their blog page!
I recently dumped MyBlogLog, but Google Friend Connect looks interesting. Like you said, it’s nice how you can go directly to a person’s information without having to visit another website (i.e. MyBlogLog.com).
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Hi Sue,
Thanks for this information it looks like a great tool, but I have to agree with previous comments, it’s ugly! I tried it on my shiney new blog but fitting it into my shiney new template is a whole ‘nother matter entirely!
Cheers, Wryn
I didn’t understand one thing. Does your subscribers come from the system or they join you through your blog?
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Oh, and one more. How are the results? Do you have traffic from there already?
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I may look into it. I recently gave up on one social network because the widget never was working, so I may find the space.
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Anyone else worried about the amount of information Google has on us? I just saw that they want to offer online hard drives… soon everyone’s information will be on Google’s servers. I’m not usually one to get paranoid about stuff like this, but this is getting a little weird
i wonder if this will be bigger than facebook.
-jack
There are just too many social networking sites/tools. How you manage them, Sue, I totally give you credit for that. I was supposed to stay away from Twitter, yet end up joining it in the end. ha.. the magic is there. Now it’s like writing, social, writing, social..; at times writing, social, social, writing, social.. unstoppable. It eats up more time than ever. Must we remind ourselves, busy as it is, don’t forget our blog posts.
(that’s what I keep telling myself too)
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I’ve heard Google Friend Connect before but I still never try it. I want to give it a try now.
Top tip… Hip Hip
Andy
Well, I may look into it.
good blog !!!
how r u my friend
peace lover from Indonesia
good future for friendship all over the world
Google entering the social booking marking arena! Could we expect total domination?
thanks for the information i’ll look for Google friend connect..
I simply do not have the time for any more social networking and from what I see exchanged here, I better keep a safe distance away from the Big G.
Very cool widget. I have always been a fan of MyBlogLog, but you make a good point that they redirect you to another site. Getting people involved in online communities is largely what blogging is all about.
I’ve tried it but haven’t managed much traffic
Although I’m going to continue experimenting…
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The information given is very good and excellent.
Google has been involved in social networking, they bought Orkut. I just started seeing these widgets pop up on some of my favorite real estate blogs. Is there any other benefits besides traffic for putting it up?
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I recently redesigned my blog. I really don’t like the new mybloglog widgets, and I haven’t had the tracker for blogcatalog on my blog for so long that it would look like nobody has visited for months … so when I saw your post, I decided to give friend connect a try.
I don’t think I’m going to add any other widgets at this point in time. But if do in the future, your step by step directions will definitely come in handy.
Thanks,
Todd
Hi, This is really great post, very informative you provided me a great and useful information..
Thank you..
Nice tip, thanks for sharing
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Yet another widget to try on my blog (not that I’ve made the most of it yet). But true, Friend Connect is worth trying (knowing that a lot of you guys use it already haha)
Sounds good in theory..
I have been looking for other traffic ways and this is gonna be added to my list, that is until / or if I find it unhelpful.
Cheers anyway, Andy
goodness i’d not heard about this one! how many social networking sites can there possibly be?! i guess it will be survival of the fittest.
I’ve never used GFC, perhaps I will give it try
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so… you’ve had it working for about three months now… would you do it again? would you still recommend it to others?
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I wonder how successful Google Friend connect will become in a few months from now, I haven’t seen that much build up for it… so I am not sure….
Till then,
Jean
good. Learn something from these two articles.
Good post. I learn lot of things about Google friend connect.
I never use this tech, but after seeing your explanation, i think it’s worth to try. thanks for informing.
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Maybe it’s just me, But I don’t think Google Friend Connect will be all that popular to be honest.
-Randy
I think GG Friend Connect is not popular than imagined, the next pound is Google wave.
i like this sound..
thanks..
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Google Friend can be Best option of social networking in future, they have to compete with some popular social networking platform like Twitter, facebook etc.
I am not using Friend Connect yet – probably because I do not want to contribute to the success of anything Google.
Thanks for informing about such an option – I’ll give it a try:) I think it’s to some extend similar to chat programs, isn’t it?
This tool is to some extend similar to social network toll, isn’t it?