December 06, 2008

Google Friend Connect Might Be Cooler Than I Thought

OK, at first this seemed pretty dumb. What does it mean, exactly, to "join" a blog? Isn't it more meaningful to show support by adding the feed to google reader, leaving a comment, or showing up as a visitor in the MyBlogLog (even though the latter is such a tongue twister it always makes me think of Bob Loblaw's Law Blog)?

But tonight I caught the first glimpse of some of the value. A Friendfeed post sent me over to Mashable to read an article called How To Get the Most Out of Friendfeed. While there I noticed a different post about Google Friend Connect and started reading it. In the comments someone noted they had gotten GFC running on their blog for tech volunteers, CodeKindness. This is definitely a topic that interests me so I "joined". Only two other people had joined. I decided to check them out. One had also "joined" Bwana's blog, and that reminded me that I wanted to do the same. How do I know Bwana? From Friendfeed, of course. Nothing earth shattering, but it was a nice little full circle of, well, connection and connecting. The bonus was that Bwana had a great article on Google Friend Connect himself. One that really delves into both the implementation and potential value for bloggers and communities.

2 comments:

Blacksonville Community Network (BCN) said...

I see what you mean about Google Connect. Kind of neat the way it sinks your Post with Plaxo and Orbit as well to create a microcosm of dataportability. It will be interesting to see when Facebook Connect and Google ties the knot. Keep posting, you have great content.

Laura said...

Thanks for the thumbs up, Blacksonville!