Don’t have Google FriendConnect on your blog? What are you waiting for? I started playing around with it (you can join this site’s community from the sidebar) and I really like it. The ability to join site communities, see what my friends are reading, and create a community on my own blog is powerful enough, but since it’s tied to your Google account, I can reach the most number of people.
A few reasons why I like it:
It’s the next step in social media; allowing you the ability to create a social network around your own blog. All your readers share the same interest in what you write about, why not allow them to connect?
Google FriendConnect probably isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Google has already thought about ways to monetize FriendSense. Finding a way to monetize social media has always been an issue, and Google has taken a stab at the industry with a strategy in mind.
Thirdly, the widgets seem interesting. So far there are only two widgets. However, developers can create third party widgets that you can later add. For example, check out the iLike widget.
How it’s going to change social media:
Mobile web changed the Internet by bringing the web to us. Wherever we are, we can access the Internet and all our information. Similarly, the idea behind Google FriendConnect moves social networks from external sites, to sites that we already use daily. When I tried to explain it to a friend, I told him to think about it like a large over-arching social network, with each site being a new group.
It also brings in a new strategy for connecting people. Google FriendConnect brings people together based on the websites they visit. As I go to Mashable, and other blogs that I read, I may friend users that I find across the multiple networks.
What now?
If you’ve got a blog, you should definitely install Google FriendConnect, you’ve got nothing to lose and a lot to potentially gain. Obviously, the fact that it’s created by Google, isn’t good enough, but it seems like they really thought this one through.
Give it a chance, tell me know how you’d like to use it? Where do you see its power? What widgets would you like to see added?
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