Red Bull Connect is kind of a Google News for everything snowboard, skateboard and surfing. So far, nothing remarkable. The awesome part is that you can login to the site using your Facebook credentials, and see what your Facebook Friends have been doing on the site. Let me show you step by step:
1/ On the top right corner of the Red Bull Connect site, a button branded Facebook to login. I click.
2/ I am prompted to enter my email and Facebook password, and then to confirm that it is okay that the Red Bull site uses my Facebook data to connect with my Facebook friends, and then eventually publish stories on my Facebook Wall and in my Facebook Nnetwork’s Facebook Newsfeed. (That was a lot of “Facebook” in one sentence!)
3/ Obviously, I accept and am logged in as a Facebook user.
4/ After browsing the site, let’s pretend that I am very interested in that Red Bull surfing story. So interested that I decide to comment on it.
5/ When submitting the comment, Red Bull asks me if I want to publish it on my Facebook wall and my friends’ Newsfeed.
6/ Accepting results in, well, what I just said above. The proof on my Facebook Wall:
7/ But the true awesomeness is that you can see if some of your friends have been interacting with the brand, commenting on articles. Just by clicking on the FRIENDS button in the nav. In this example, Camille, the super talented Baker/Art Director sitting right beside me, visited the site and saw that I had been procrastinating instead of working. Bad for me. She probably won’t make any cookies any time soon as a punishment.
8/ Also, when your friends browse the Red Bull news, comments made by their Facebook networks are featured around the article.
Indeed, do you really care about what strangers have to say about an blog post, a NY Times article, a product on Amazon? Okay, it might influence you, but being able to focus on what your friends have been saying is much more powerful. It’s a bit like going in a bar and eavesdropping on everyone’s conversation. Fun for a couple of minutes, but what you really need is to have a discussion of your own, with people that you know and trust.
We’re working on a couple of projects here in the FullSIX NY office to plug Facebook Connect in some of our projects, in order to engage true, valuable customer conversation and interaction within our clients site , using already existing Facebook networks and tools. Stay tuned! Or drop us a line if you want us to help your brand be Connected!
What a day, exciting news for social networking! Google also announced today Google Friend Connect – similar to Facebook Connect, though a bit more limited, and build on top of OpenSocial and OpenID
Wired referred to this as “The Identity Wars”. I wouldn’t go that far, but both Facebook and Google will obviously struggle to gain network power. Facebook is clearly ahead and it’s a richer experience for the user, the web site and Facebook itself.
Can’t wait to see FC in action and even give it a try on a couple of projects.
Indeed. I hesitated to link back to our earlier article about Google Friend Connect, offering a pretty similar set of functionalities sans the extensive community that Facebook managed to attract:
http://www.thetrendwatch.com/2008/05/13/can-google-friend-connect-change-the-way-we-usecreate-websites/
Definitely a buzz topic for the year to come.
Also, some people are voicing concerns about the proprietary technology used for Facebook Connect:
http://chrissaad.wordpress.com/2008/12/01/facebook-connect-aka-hailstorm-20/
…and I can see why. It’s like Facebook is trying to raise the walls of its garden, keeping all interaction within those walls.
True, that’s a major concern, one that makes us hesitant to integrate sites with Connect, so that our data does not belong dependent to Facebook. I believe that this is really where the Social Network war is gonna be. The first one to do Connect with APIs and open walls will probably win developers’ heart, which will result in massive attraction/retention of users for that Social Network.
A chart comparing Facebook Connect and OpenID here:
http://www.mindmeister.com/8784099
Let’s hope that one of them or Google or someone else will come up with a decent solution soon because this is very exciting!
I heart websites that talk about how great/life changing facebook connect is (and they haven’t implemented it themselves)!
Well, Mark, we’re on it. We just need to upgrade our WordPress 1st!
Hi, Olivier:
Just referenced this in my post. Really enjoyed the read! I have to disagree with some of the walled garden comments above. I think FB Connect is their effort to expand their influence beyond FB’s garden walls.
Happy harvesting, everyone.
Michael
Sorry…forgot the link.
http://threeminds.organic.com/2009/01/getting_away_from_facebook_wit.html