OpenID vs.Facebook Connect vs.

Friend Connect W h a t ’ s T h e D i f f e r e n c e ?

D e r e k G a l l oh t t p : / / n f i s t u d i o s . c o m

The Problem

People are getting sick of registering and re-declaring their friends on every site.

Developing "Social Applications" is too much work.

Identity Federation

The assembled identity, of a person's user information across multiple systems

Social Graph

The interconnections among people, groups and organizations in a social network

OpenID

OpenID is a free and easy way to use a single digital identity across the Internet.

Users are identified by a URL at a provider(ex: http://derekgallo.myopenid.com)

Users are directed to their provider to identify themselves and then returned back.

OpenID Pros

Open Source!

Multiple Providers (Yahoo, AOL, Google, ...)

No Central Control of User Data

Largest Pool of Users(kinda).

Possibilities limited by developer imagination

OpenID Cons

Requires application development to utilize (although it is a standard)

Only addresses Authentication although can be combined with other standards (Social Graph API, Portable Contacts, OpenID Attribute Exchange)

Most non-technical users are unaware of it or don’t understand it.

The Open Stack

Facebook Connect

Allows users to login to sites using their familiar Facebook credentials.

Allows sites to import users’ data from Facebook profile.

Sites can add items to users’ feed on Facebook

Facebook Pros

Already richly populated with data.

HUGE, self aware user base.

Familiar and usable for end-users

Quickly being adopted by many sites (thus adding to its familiarity)

Facebook Cons

Proprietary

Requires application development to utilize

New custom markup to learn

Limited to what Facebook implements.

Single provider of identity

Google FriendConnect

Javascript “Gadgets” that are placed on your site to add social functionality

Small but growing selection of gadgets becoming available from the OpenSocial community

Actually uses OpenID

FriendConnect Pros

Super Simple to setup

Register your site and paste some javascript code.

Select social features you want (friends, wall, etc.)

Growing gadget base

Easy for non-developers to implement

FriendConnect Cons

Interaction is sandboxed behind Google’s widget code

No way for developers to get access to the user’s data for incorporation in their site

So far appears to be very “widgety”

Which One Should I Use?

Examine your site’s needs and target audience.

Are your visitors more technical?

Will most of them be on Facebook?

Do you need access to the users’ data to act upon it?

Which One Should I Use?

OpenID if you:

Want to comply with emerging standards.

Want to support several sources of identity

Have technical resources to implement.

Which One Should I Use?

Facebook Connect if you:

Want simple brand familiarity for general end users.

Want to promote actions on your site to a huge user base.

Want to easily get data about a user from one protocol

Have technical resources to implement

Which One Should I Use?

Google Friend Connect if you:

Don’t need ready access to work with the user data.

Want to quickly add fun widgets to your site or blog.

Don’t have technical resources to implement.

Which One Should I Use?

You don’t have to pick!

You can use more than one.

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Who Will Win?

Nobody will “win”

Facebook Connect will and is gaining quick adoption

The Open Stack may gain more support long term due to developers backing