Like the Social Bar?

By Jake • February 12th, 2009 • 5 Comments

Image by (Not So Frenchy) Ross on Flickr

Image by (Not So Frenchy) Ross on Flickr

Back in December, we added the Google Friend Connect widgets.

Since then, our little blog social network has grown to over 100 members. It’s still not entirely clear to me what you’d want to do with Google Friend Connect, other than affiliate yourself with a blog or website. I guess it’s also a way to discover other sites, but you have to spend time paging through everyone’s profiles to see what else they’ve joined.

If I missed something obvious, please tell me in comments.

I’m stoked that 100-odd people out there want to be affiliated with us. Surprised, too. Thanks.

Yesterday, Google Friend Connect added the Social Bar, a much lower-profile version of the widget that can persist at the top or bottom of your pages. You may have noticed it here, much better I think. I removed the clunky widgets from the right-hand column.

Interested in the how-tos? Viddy this:

What do you think of Google Friend Connect so far, not just here, but in general? I’m interested to know how many sites have deployed it.

Find the comments.


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  • http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=502749470 innov8ion

    Nice! I've added Google Friend Connect and the Social Bar to the Downtown St. Louis Residents Association website: http://dslra.org/. Now I'll just monitor for further usefulness.

  • http://theappslab.com Jake

    I've noticed it's a bit on the slow side at times, which I'm hoping they fix. I'm sure they'll continue to layer on features as the social war escalates.

  • http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=502749470 innov8ion

    Imitation is the best form of flattery? I've also integrated Disqus on the DSLRA website as well. I've enabled the Facebook Connect integration as well (bad Dave?) I read they'll enable Facebook news feed comment integration within a month or so.

    Disqus is working on Google Friend Connect as well…

  • http://theappslab.com Jake

    Heh, does it really matter where a good idea originates? Not like we invented either. I don't have a problem w/FB Connect per se, just would like to see more 1) openness and 2) emphasis on strong creds.

    They are making progress, e.g. by committing to OpenID. So, we'll see.

  • innov8ion

    Have you thought about an XMPP-based app bar for Connect? Kind of like the Facebook app bar? I think enterprise apps should be connected with the social network. Alerts could pop up in the app bar like Facebook. They could also go in the news feed. There could be presence in this bar to chat with your personal or group contacts (one person or group chat.)