Logging into Facebook provides access to a variety of other content sites like Digg and Citysearch, with Facebook Connect serving as a single sign-on ID.
Facebook aimed for greater utility with its logins and unveiled a new feature called Facebook Connect. It’s being touted as an OpenID killer in the single sign-on space.
The concept of single sign-on removes the multiple logins and passwords people use across various web services. By signing into one place, in this case Facebook, that authenticated login serves to provide entry into other sites supporting Facebook Connect.
Jeremiah Owyang suggested brand name companies ought to watch the launch of Facebook Connect.
“Brands that have websites that have social actions (such as buying a product, rating, ranking, or leaving comments) should keep this in mind, as they can now extend the actions to Facebook streams,” he wrote.
Kevin Rose at Digg noted that site’s support for Facebook Connect. “With this new feature, when you are prompted to log onto Digg, you can use your Facebook account information to sign in. Once you Digg a story, Facebook Connect can publish that in your Facebook Mini-Feed,” he said.
In doing that, a Facebook user shares their activity with friends who see that Mini-Feed activity. The appeal to brand advertisers becomes obvious: a mostly youthful, college-educated audience, with money to burn.
Enabling a single sign-on removes one barrier for someone new to a brand name site; they will already have access to that site’s features normally available through registration, a process some people find annoying.
In one example, Citysearch said visitors arriving through Facebook Connect will be able to see what their friends recommend for a given locale. Those recommendations will appear on a Citysearch business profile page; Citysearch plans to have this active later in 2008.
