Facebook Says No To Friend Connect

Is this a privacy issue or is it something else? You decide.

Facebook Disconnects Google Friend Connect

Facebook says it denied Google Friend Connect access to Facebook user data for failing to respect its privacy requirements.

By Thomas Claburn
InformationWeek
May 16, 2008 09:00 AM

Facebook isn't feeling very social toward Google (NSDQ: GOOG). The social networking site on Thursday broke up with Google Friend Connect -- the search company's system for adding social features to any Web site. It denied Friend Connect access to Facebook user data for failing to respect its privacy requirements.

"We've found that [Friend Connect] redistributes user information from Facebook to other developers without users' knowledge, which doesn't respect the privacy standards our users have come to expect and is a violation of our Terms of Service," said Facebook engineer Charlie Cheever in a blog post. "Just as we've been forced to do for other applications that redistribute data in a way users might not expect or understand, we've had to suspend Friend Connect's access to Facebook user information until it comes into compliance."

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Joe Kraus, director of product management at Google, disputes Cheever's contention that privacy is the issue. "We really think that the broad issue here is 'do users have control of their data?'" he said. "And we think that Friend Connect gives users control of their data. Obviously we're disappointed that Facebook doesn't want to let its users access their friends on Friend Connect. We really think this is an issue of user control."

Privacy, Kraus said, isn't the problem. "Google stores no social graph data from any of the social networks," he insisted. "None. ... What Google stores is just a Friend Connect ID, which is just a number, and whatever security token that the social network gives us back. That's all. We don't store credentials, we don't store profile data."

Kraus added that at the recent developer event where Friend Connect was introduced, officials from business social networking site LinkedIn expressed approval of the way Friend Connect respected user privacy.

Facebook did not immediately respond to a request to explain what Facebook user information Google Friend Connect allegedly redistributes.

"Google lives and dies on protecting users' privacy," Kraus added. "We believes [Friend Connect] is good for users in terms of control and extremely protective of user' privacy."

Research firm IDC also sees control as the issue. "Facebook, MySpace, Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), and Google are fighting to reign as this central account for Web users," analyst Caroline Dangson said in a research note published on Monday.

Dangson cast the fight as an effort by Google to de-emphasize the user-centric, site-centric vision of online interaction that has emerged around social networking sites in favor of a more dispersed, modular model that benefits from Google as its center of gravity.

"Google Friend Connect puts Google in the middle of the social graph by mediating the relationship between people's content (their blogs, etc.) and their friends -- a smart but also a bit devious as a competitive move," she wrote.

Kraus insists Friend Connect benefits social networks and their users. "It makes those relationships you establish on social networks more useful on more places," he said. "And if the user so chooses, it makes the activity streams, or updates streams -- whatever you want to call them -- richer within those social networks."

Social Networks

There are many social networks out there and they all play a big role on the internet. Social networks are used for a variety of reasons, whether it be to keep in touch with friends and family, or to build a huge network of people that share common goals. Whatever your reasons in joining a social network, you have plenty to choose from.

The best way to find out more about social networks is to visit Blogs and Social Networks. Stephanie Haile goes into detail about some of the more popular social networks. She also has a radio show with her daughter Stevie, at Blog Talk Radio also called Blogs And Social Networks. You will want to go listen to their shows, as they provide a lot of information about the different networks and how to use them. Enjoy!

Google Me The Movie

Did you get a chance to hear Jim Killeen of Google Me The Movie being interviewed by Jim Cobb at Google Me Talk Radio last night? If you didn't, you can go to Google Me Talk Radio and listen now. It was a great interview and Jim Killeen talked about some things he couldn't put in the movie. If haven't seen the movie or ordered your DVD you can go to Google Me The Movie and take care of that now. Jim Killeen did an outstanding job, the movie was great!

Google Me Talk Radio Jim Killeen

Jim Killeens adventure through the search engines of GOOGLE to the
far corners of the Earth have given him a knowledge one can only
obtain throughout the journey.

Computers are now a focus of our daily lives rather than an
addition to the tasks we perform each day. Strictly checking our
occasional emails has become a thing of the past. Bringing the
computers out of the den and into the main living area of the home
for researching information, watching videos and sometimes
gathering advice on the many websites available through the
world-wide web. GOOGLE has produced the greatest impression and has
enabled web users to connect, seek, and ultimately locate each
other.

GOOGLE Me The Movie, Jim Killeen, and Blog Talk Radio are merging
together for a one night event on GOOGLE Me Talk Radio! Thursday
night April 24th at 8pm ET. This will be an exciting evening with
the host of GOOGLE Me Talk Radio, Jim Cobb and The GOOGLE Me Man
with the plan, Jim Killeen. Be sure to spend some time at
http://www.GoogleMeTalkRadio.com for the entertaining evening. This will be an event you will not want to miss. Hope to see you there.

Article Writing

Writing articles is a great way to generate traffic to your website. Other reasons for article writing are increased search engine rankings, builds link popularity, helps to establish you as an expert in your field (so long as you do your research and write a good article), will get returning visitors to your site.

Now that you know the why, let's begin with the how. First choose your topic and make sure that you research the subject. Also do a keyword search for some phrases than you can use in your article, but don't overuse them. Make an outline for your article. You need a headline (title) that is catchy and will make people want to read it, then the introduction where you say a little of what the article is about. Next comes the body where you discuss in detail all the points you outlined in the introduction. Make sure each point has it's own paragraph, usually about 5 lines long. Finally the conclusion, where you give a summary of the body of your article and get the reader to take action.

That's it. That is how to write an article. There are many places where you can place your article for free. One thing that you need to know is that most places like articles that are 500 to 800 words long. If your article is longer than that, try making two articles out of it. Now go write an article! :)

Blogging

I never thought I would say this but here I go, blogging is fun!! When I was in class with MY VM Team and the coach said we were going to learn blogging, I just thought Oh No!, this is something I don't want to do. But I gave it a chance and I really like doing it. Now it is your turn to learn how to get your own blog started.

Instead of me telling you how to get your blog started, I am going to send you to a person that we at My VM Team call the Blogging Queen. Stephanie has done such a great job at blogging and teaching us how to do it, I know your blog will be great if you just follow her steps. She has everything laid at for you using videos. All you have to do is click here to get started. You will have to click on older post once you get there because she has been very busy posting! Now go and have fun!

Advertising Tips

Do you have a website or blog that you want to drive traffic to? There are many places to advertise your business on the web, some free and some paid. Right now let's concentrate on the free sites. :)

Classified ads are a good way to get started and there are a lot of free sites you can use. With classifieds you need a headline (title) that is catchy, but truthful. Don't say something like "You Can Make $1000.00 Tonight!, cause that is not true. Then you need the body where you write about your website or product. You don't want to tell them everything in your ad. I like to keep it kind of vague so they will click through to my site. You want to make them curious so that they want to know more. Here is a list of a few free classified sites.

US Free Classifieds
adoos
Adpost

I have also had good luck with safelist even though they can be a pain because of all the email that you receive. Most of them are credit based, so you need to read emails to get the credits. What I do is look at all the subject lines, keep the ones that look interesting and delete the rest of them. Here are a few that have worked for me.

Free Safelist Mailer
Active Safelist
List Joe

The most important thing to remember about advertising is to be consistent. It is something that has to be done on a daily basis. I hope this helps you to do more advertising. Next time I will be going over writing articles, blogging, and social networks.