Facebook Connect goes live to one and all

The web is now free to get even more social today with Facebook's announcement that Facebook Connect is now available to the public. Announced back in May and in private beta testing for some time, Facebook Connect allows users to harness their Facebook credentials and data on participating external websites, then bring those experiences back to the Facebook community, all backed by strict data retention policies and granular privacy controls. It brings the promise of a single sign-on solution and more convenient socialization on the web, and now, any developer or website owner can hop on board.

Announced in a press release, Facebook Connect registration is now open to anyone, with sample applications and source code available to help developers get started. The service is designed to solve two distinct problems that have emerged out of a web that has become both more functional and social: how to make it easier for users to bring their identity with them to all these new sites, and the second is how to easily share these experiences with friends, family, and coworkers.

Facebook isn't the only organization attempting to tackle these problems, as a number of similar initiatives have appeared. Movements like OpenID, a single sign-on solution that allows a number of companies to serve as identity storehouses, have gained significant support from major industry partners like Google, Yahoo, and IBM. DataPortability is another solution with ambitions on par with Facebook's, as it involves both single sign-on ideals and, as its name suggests, the ability to share one's data like profile information or photo galleries between sites. In recent months, however, OpenID's usability problems have become a hindrance, and many of DataPortability's largest backers, like MySpace, have yet to pull the trigger.

Through Facebook Connect's private beta period and for today's launch, the company signed on a healthy batch of major partners for testing such as CNN, MoveOn, Hulu, and Citysearch. Facebook's 130 million users can now use their credentials to sign into participating third-party sites and populate their identity with Facebook profile info, but still take advantage of granular privacy controls that can restrict things like profile photos from being viewed by other Facebook Connect users logged into the site. These sites will have to follow the Facebook Connect Policies and Developer Terms of Service that put forth strict rules on things like data retention policies and sign-in usability.

Experiences at these other sites, such as leaving a comment, digging a post, or adding photos to a community, can now be shared back to one's Facebook activity stream much more easily as well, completing the circle of social activity that begins and ends with Facebook. Considering the rampant success of the Facebook Platform and the site's steady growth, you can look for a lot of sites to begin offering Facebook Connect integration very soon.

http://arstechnica.com

BlackBerry Storm

BlackBerry Storm

The downside to Facebook

College students focus on networking, grades, making friends, and having a good time, all while getting involved and staying in touch with friends, and then there's Facebook. Facebook aids college students in all of their tasks but has its potential downfalls.

Students use Facebook to keep in touch with high school friends and chat with current friends. It also allows them to take breaks from studying.

"Facebook gives me a temporary break from work and allows me to refocus and get back on track," stated Mount Union student Sarah Carlson.

While Facebook has these advantages, it also causes problems for some students and opens them to dangers. These dangers include not getting their work done, not being able to get a job, getting fired from a position or being stalked.

Many times when students sit down at a computer their first instinct is to open their Facebook and see what new notifications they have. Now they can even chat with each other through the social networking system.

"I automatically check my Facebook when I get on a computer. I end up starting my work at least 15 minutes later because I was checking in on people or chatting," stated Mount Union student, Laura Griffin.

Students also catch themselves wasting more than just 15 minutes. Will Warren said that there have been times when he just sat in his room and on Facebook for nearly an hour, therefore not getting anything else done.

Facebook also has privacy issues. There are ways to block others or only allow "friends" to see the page. However, sometimes even those "friends" are not people who should have someone else's personal photos.

"I feel like as private as Facebook seems, it really isn't. Once pictures are up anyone has the ability to save them and use them for whatever they want. Unfortunately they then have those pictures forever," Kristin Strah, another Mount Union student said.

Sometimes pictures a person may not even know about end up online. They are then public domain and there is little anyone can do to stop someone from publishing the photos. The photos then get people in trouble with friends, significant others and possibly the law. When pictures from parties are posted many times they depict underage drinking as well as violations of other college policies.

Recently, your reputation isn't the only thing on the line but also you future and your employment. Recruiters and employers have begun to use Facebook and other social networking sites to check up on their potential interviewees.

Information from Yale University showed that many recent graduates had encountered employers checking out their Facebook pages and using their junior employees to access the information.

"I'm not surprised, employers will always be interested to learn as much information about their candidates as they can, and this is just another way for them to do so," Nicole Snyder, associate director for recruitment and employer relations at Princeton University, told a reporter at Yale University.

The numbers of those using Facebook to screen potential employees is increasing, according to Careerbuilder.com. They found that 22 percent of companies had checked candidates' online networking sites and another 9 percent claimed they were going to in the future.

While 24 percent claimed to have hired someone because of their networking profile, 33 percent said they decided not to give a job offer based on online networking profiles. The 33 percent that denied people jobs said that it was most often because of 'inappropriate' or 'provocative' behavior in photos.

How I Keep Track of Facebook Without Visiting Facebook

I can’t stand Facebook. It’s not really anything they did. It’s nothing personal. I just don’t really like going there. It wasn’t as bad before the site redesign, but they managed to do exactly what was necessary to make the interface more annoying and confusing. The redesign does have some redeeming qualities, but mostly it makes my head hurt.

My friends over on FriendFeed actually got me interested in using Facebook again. Not that they all love it or anything, but some of them do use it. After adding them as friends, I found I was actually getting comments on my status messages, people were throwing sheep at me, and I felt kinda bad that I wasn’t engaging them there.

Via SMS
I use a combination of methods for tracking what’s going on with my FB friends when I’m not there. The first method is via my mobile phone. I don’t have the web or a camera, but I do have text messaging. I went to my Account Settings->Mobile and activated Facebook Mobile. The default settings seem to work just fine.

Via IM
This part was a little trickier, but only because I had no clue how to do it at first. The solution was Notify.Me and I would have liked to link to the article where I read about it, but my ADD has since pushed that out of my mind for newer and shinier things. Notify.Me is definitely the primary method I use for keeping up…with Facebook.

Once you have signed up for Notify.Me, visit this tutorial on their Wiki. It details how to follow your Notifications and Friends’ Status updates. Depending on your friends, you may not want the status updates feed. It could possibly get annoying.

Via Email
Facebook recently lost everyone’s email notification settings. I think they did it on purpose to mess with us, but I can’t prove it. I don’t really use email to track things like Facebook because I don’t live in my email like some people do. I want my Facebook interactions to be immediate and not rely on me checking anything. Some people may find this option useful, though. You can configure this in Account Settings->Notifications.

You can also have Notify.Me send you email alerts if you prefer these over IM alerts.

Conclusion
This is just how I do it and, while I hope this setup works for you out of the box, keep in mind that you have a lot of options here. Play around with what feeds you track and which notification methods you use. If you do decide to tweak things or know of a way to improve this, leave a comment. I’d be interested in hearing about it.