Google Friend Connect Beta is moving forward with the next wave of approved beta testers in it’s preparations for open beta testing. I just received my Google Friend Connect invite today and the Technology Goddess blog is now participating in the beta version of Friend Connect.
This great social app integrates full community capability into any website or blog, and although right now there are not a lot of widgets developed yet with Google Friend Connect, it is OpenSocial and so I am anticipating that once it goes live there will be a multitude of wonderful gadgets developed to optimize your on-site community!
I have already integrated Google Friend Connect on the Technology Goddess blog, and you can now join the community and the conversation!
My Thoughts so far:
Google Friend Connect was super-easy to install and integrate, easier than building most social widgets. I have created a basic tutorial for you in the Technology Goddess blog showing my own installation of Google Friend Connect.
Right now the “wall” widget is ready to use so users can comment on your site, a nifty feature of the “wall” is that you can specify whether you want the widget to be for the entire site or a page. This means that you can have different areas of pages of your site, or perhaps a popular article on your blog that can have a unique “comments” wall for your community. Yes, blogs already have “comments” but the fact that you can now create this anywhere for your community is outstanding.
The “Ratings” widget is similar, you can specify the “ratings” widget to cover an entire site, a page, an article or item. So yes, you can have rating not only for your articles or blog posts, but perhaps for your reviews of other products? I will have this widget integrated shortly with new articles that cover technology apps. so that my community can share in the ratings process.
The setup for Google Friend Connect was amazingly easy and graceful, so easy in fact, my blog could almost do it on it’s own. It took me less than 10 minutes to add full community capability onto my Technology Goddess blog, and I recorded two videos of the setup process.
Video One: Google Friend Connect Setup and Installation:
Video Two: Google Friend Connect Setup and Installation:
That’s my overview on setting up Google Friend connect on your blog or website. It took me only a few minutes to have a community flourishing on my blog. Very Cool.
This is one of the richest interviews we have ever given. If you know the
right questions to ask someone like Kevin Marks, you can come pretty close
to predicting the next couple years of Google’s technology objectives.
Kevin Marks is a Developer Advocate for Open Social at Google, bringing
external developers and Google engineers together to make a better web.
Over the last 20 years he’s alternated between giant companies and founding
startups - BBC, The UK MultiMedia Corporation, Apple QuickTime, Technorati
and now Google. The common thread has been working out how people,
computers and media can complement each other, and solving the engineering
and social problems where they meet. He is one of the driving forces behind microformats.org and advisor to the Open Rights group. He wants you to
remember that URLs are people too.
CNET Credits Kevin Marks for the genesis of podcasting as he was a primary
developer of the program that downloads RSS-enclosure audio files and
transfers them to Apples I-tunes music player so they could be synchronized
onto the I-Pod. Later this became know as podcasting. (This is why
Feedburner has two feed options, one for podcasting and one for direct
feeds).
Here are some of the major topics and controversial questions covered in
this interview:
- How many Open Social applications exist at Google?
- Why is the concept of “data portability” a misnomer?
- How does Social Graph work with the publicly declared connections, XHTML
friends networks, XFN markup and FOAF (friend of a friend)?
- Google did not create a unique crawler for XFN and FOAF. (This has been
heavily debated and Kevin puts this controversy to rest).
- What are Google’s plans for XFN and FOAF as it relates to Search Engine
Optimization? (This has been heavily debated and Kevin puts this
controversy to rest).
- What does it mean (exactly) that Googlebot follows XFN and FOAF? (This
has also been heavily debated and Kevin puts this controversy to rest).
- XFN markup and FOAF were originally designed to display the distributed
networks and social relationships to the general public. How should you
prepare for where this is all going?
- What are the security risks and concerns regarding all of these publicly
revealed social networks.
- What is an “activity stream” and how do you avoid mixing your friends
from Church with your friends at the night club?
- Because Googlebot follows publicly declared connections via FOAF and XFN
it should be easy to determine where the “influencers” are located over
massive global networks. Why has Google rethought their strategy on where
true influencers exist as nodes on networks?
- How will the recent “geek disputes” about this issue effect the
proprietary and Google patented “influence rank” concept? (This is also
called “friend rank” or “social value rank” by the Internet Marketing
pundits).
- It it really possible to use “knowledge of influencers” to predictably
place “interruption advertising” inside major networks?
- Can you expect good conversion using this sort of “influence rank” as a
predictor? (Kevin really exposes the issues that Google has been sorting
through in order to adequately answer this question).
- Why is it unwise to view social networks as a channel for Adsense based
on traditional “search” behaviors?
- What is the best way to use social networks from a branding and
advertising?
- What is a “self targeting” ad network when it comes to social networks?
- One of the biggest challenges Google developers have had is trying to
create a data model that maps the natural discernment processes taking
place in the human brain (Cognitive Neuroscience). What do you need to know
about the weaknesses of machine driven neural and social networks?
- When will Friend Connect be released and why is it taking so long?
- What are the Google Friend Connect developers currently focused on in
the lab?
- I-Google (Google personal desktop) now has Canvas mode. How will this
relate to Friend Connect.
Special Thanks to Kevin Marks, Sara Jew-Lim and the Google Open Social
development team.
Special Thanks to Erika Preuss of TechnologyGoddess.com who landed and
coordinated this interview.
I look forward to seeing all of you at the Theme Zoom Protege Event where
Sue, Jon, Erika and I can expand on exactly what all of Kevin’s information
means to your business over the next two years.
At the Theme Zoom Protege conference we might informally chat about the
following topics between other program events, so take the time to listen
to the interview:
- What does this new information about Open Standard means for your
Krakken Keyword Genetic Code?
- How does this information influence the Silo Feed Machine System as
Erika and I work out with Sue Bell how to handle the technology and final
development aspects of the system. It is ironic that one of the final steps
during our blueprinting of the Silo Feed Machine system was how we should
deal with “podcast enclosures” as separate feeds from your primary data
feeds- ironic in that Kevin invented these (sometimes) annoying-but-useful
things.
- Feeds are the Glue that can hold all of your primary and secondary
networks together if you know what you are doing. How can you use them
(combined with your Krakken Genetic Keyword Code) to improve website
conversion?
- How has this information has been simplified by our Silo Feed Machine
system so that you do not need to be a rocket scientist in order to
implement geeky technologies invented by aliens?
Erika of Technology Goddess here, sharing with you my recent interview with Kevin Marks, a Google OpenSocial Developer Advocate. It is one of the richest and most informative interviews I have heard with a Google Developer online. Kevin is author of the weblog Epeus Epigone and became principal engineer for Technorati after doing work for both Apple and the BBC. He is one of the founders of Microformats and CNet credits Kevin as one of the primary contributors to the genesis of podcasting technology as we know it today.
Kevin shares insights with me into Google’s OpenSocial philosophy and future as well as FOAF, the Google Social Graph API, how the Googlebot follows FOAF and XFN markup links and publicly declared connections, what Google Developers are currently focused on in the lab and the future of Google Friend Connect.
I so enjoyed talking with such an innovative and brilliant mind on the forefront of internet social development. Go grab a latte and sit down for this full interview, because you will not want to miss a word of Kevin’s in-depth peek inside Google’s Development environment.
I am super-excited to announced that next Tuesday morning I will be posting a podcast interview with a Google OpenSocial and Friend Connect Developer. I know that many of you are anticipating the launch of Google’s Friend Connect and have a lot of questions about some of the other great OpenSocial projects Google has going like Social Graph API, and I’ll try to pose as many questions as we have time for in the interview. Here is my Video announcement and I hope to see all of you here on Tuesday!
The Technology Goddess Blog was so honored to be a Google Friend Connect Beta tester. Please join the conversation with me!
TED: Webs Secret Stories
Jonathan Harris' software reveals the emotional world of the Web. With deep compassion for the human condition, his projects troll the Internet to find out what we're all feeling and searching for and gives us a glimpse into the Soul of the internet and humanity.
I'm sharing my lifestyle picks, pleasures and general dopamine enhancers in Lifestyle. I'm not your average blond, and no one has ever called me "normal", so be prepared for some hedonic treadmill fun as you browse my brain. When you are ready to jump off the treadmill, Check out NeuroMarketing and find out what's really going on when you drool over those shiny new things!
