Facebook Connect and Google Friend Connect

The innovation of an OpenID has different companies racing to provide the most widely used form for users. One might wonder what the differences between these options are. Two of the Internet industry’s largest figures—Facebook and Google—have created OpenID programs. Facebook Connect and Google Friend Connect are widely anticipated as catalysts of the OpenID trend.

What differentiates the two from each other? The foundation for any OpenID platform is based on streamlining a users’ online identity (whether it is a Facebook or Google login) onto other websites. Some of the differences are in the companies’ purposes. While Facebook Connect might tie you to the social network, Google is tied to the user’s gmail account.  Google already has several widgets (or gadgets as Google calls them) in place for users, while Facebook users would have to create their own applications.  On the other hand, reports say that a “Facebook Connect application can send your activities back to Facebook; Google Friend Connect has no such central place”.  Regardless of the differences, both platforms will have to further develop in order to see which one will come out on top.