The Google Friend Connect Team has introduced a new feature to the service – a social bar. You can set the bar to appear at the top or bottom of you page.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYYOHNPysjcThe toolbar contains the following elements:
– On the far left, visitors can join your site, see their identity, and edit their profiles and settings.
– your site’s activity stream, including links to recent posts made anywhere on your site
– The wall gadget, which can host a discussion for the whole site, a section of pages, or each individual page, letting your visitors easily read and leave comments.
– a place for visitors to see the other members of your site, check out their profiles, send friend requests, etc.
Click image to see the social bar in action.
Adding the social bar is simple enough. Simply:
1. Go to google.com/friendconnect
2. Click on your website and select “social bar“
3. Scroll down to choose your options
4. Click “generate code“
5. Copy the code and paste it into your HTML
The tool should make Google Friend Connect a little more useful for users who still question the purpose of the service. If nothing else, it brings the functionality a little closer to the forefront. That is if you don’t feel that the bar is intrusive to your site. It could certainly push the social element you are looking to establish either way.
