Social networks move from OpenId to Facebook Connect? [kwiqq]

Posted on | April 6, 2009 | View Comments

As a social networking provider our job has always been to deliver what is required. We are a major supporter of OpenID and will remain till it makes sense for our customers. We have developed several sites supporting openID including East Hampshire and GazetMe (video below):

Although we like the industry feel that times are changing, as Facebook is moving from a walled garden approach to (restricted) export data approach. More clients are now asking for Facebook Connect and its a relief for us as we are shifting from the approach of actively suggesting to getting asked for it.

Shift to Facebook Connect

The OpenID development community have always been honest about the product. There our several features which were forthcoming like social graphs, better usability etc. Well in all honesty it took an aweful amount of time to get partners onboard like Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, IBM etc. As a result many of the things on the roadmap were never actually launched in time. Facebook Connect was quick to incorporate these features from the start. The results are clear Facebook in a short time has got more people talking about it, more importantly its not just the uber geek community:

OpenId v/s Facebook Connect

OpenID has not really appealed to the non-tech savvy users, here are some possible reasons:

Usability real issue

The main reason from our perspective is Usability ! To sign-in to an OpenID site it requires users to go through these steps/screens (demonstrated on Dopplr.com):

SCREEN 1

Normal Login on Dopplr

SCREEN 2

Changed to login using OpenID

SCREEN 3

Logging in using an OpenID provider

SCREEN 4

Login Success

A two step process took four screen changes which could be really frustrating for a user. Let’s compare this with Facebook’s two step login (I’m assuming that I’m Logged into Facebook, reasonable as most users tend to be logged into Facebook):

SCREEN 1:

Click to Signin - Facebook Connect (Brightkite)

SCREEN 2:

User Logged into Brightkite

Concept of OpenID

From our experience (non-technical) users don’t understand OpenID. The concept is new to what users always knew i.e. use hotmail.com username to login to msn.com and hotmail.com. This is also the reason why Facebook Connect is so much easier to comprehend. Coupled with the fact that it all happens on one screen without being relocated to another website.

Pull your Social Graph

Facebook from the very beggining allowed users to pull their social graph from Facebook. Exploring friends on a new social network based on Facebook is fantastic for social networks. Facebook in that sense is well designed, you can mark your friends and work colleagues and export them all across the web.

It works very well for the user when they are on several (small) niche social networks i.e. find your work colleague in a tennis club close to your house and reconnect with them.

Rise of other providers

Apart from Facebook connect soon all major networks like LinkedIn, Xing, Ning (already has one) etc have the potential to become ID providers for their niche. A good example is Myspace who recently launched MySpaceID. It allows users to:

• Connect MySpace profile data to partner sites (Now available)
• Find MySpace friends on a partner site (Now available)
• Register on partner sites using their MySpace URL
• Publish activities from partner sites to MySpace
• Syndicate activities on MySpace to partner sites

Its precisely what OpenID should be and Facebook currently is !

OpenID’s fight back

As more players are looking to jump to become identity providers OpenID community is now starting its campaign to fight back. Plaxo recently announced the launch of an improved user experience OpenId solution in conjunction with Google Contacts API. In their words:

Our first live test takes an innovative “hybrid approach,” bringing together three discrete technologies into a unified experience: OpenID for sign-on; OAuth for delegated authorization; and the Google Contacts API for secure import of the user’s address book. Of course, that’s all “under the hood;” the user certainly doesn’t need to have understanding (or even awareness) of these enabling technologies – no matter how cool we think they are.

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• MySpace and Microsoft Team Up: What Does it Mean for Facebook and Google? (tsurch.com)
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• Facebook Joins Board of OpenID (appscout.com)

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