Friend Connect, Widgets, Ning

Marc Andreessen points out what Friend Connect is, isn't and how it's really all about widgets (as usual).

Friend Connect, Open Social, Ning, and the web

Friend Connect is a mechanism by which Open Social gadgets can be published and used not just within a social network but also beyond that social network. When an Open Social gadget shows up elsewhere on the web, via Friend Connect, the friend data and social context comes with the Open Social gadget from its origin social network -- and that origin social network might be a network on Ning or a large walled garden network like MySpace or Orkut, and that Open Social gadget might be embedded on any page anywhere on the web.

In a sense, Friend Connect one-ups Flash widgets. Many social networks and other content hubs today publish Flash widgets like video players and music players that get embedded in pages all over the web. Friend Connect is a mechanism that provides the embedding capability for Open Social gadgets to be used all throughout the web -- with the added benefit that with a Friend Connect-enabled Open Social gadget, the user gets her social context anywhere she goes, which isn't the case with a typical Flash widget.

Comments

[Spencer Forman]

WidgetLaboratory.com has been creating widgets and solutions for the Ning platform since December 2007. Based upon our experience in this network space, we do not find it likely that Friend Connect will have a great impact, for two reasons:

First, because a major attraction of utilizing Ning as a platform is the fact that one's website is "network-centric" rather than "user-centric" as is true on Facebook or MySpace. We have found a large percentage of our Ning clients have attempted to build "whitelabel" (unbranded) sites and do not wish to lose their site members to other social networks (even to other NING networks). As such, they would not likely place any Friend Connect widget or gadget on their site;

Second, it is our opinion that the entire Open Social movement is a Red-Herring. It sounds "great" but in reality it stands in opposition to the competitive struggle that is now underway in the Social Network space.

Ning is spending large sums of Venture Capital in an effort to win over market share in a space flooded with competitors. There is no logical reason that they would wish to make it any "easier" for these existing customers to migrate back and forth to other Social Network platforms.

WidgetLaboratory produces products and solutions that are designed to make Ning sites incredibly powerful and useful for site creators, and do so in a way the mitigates any need to go elsewhere, or to have members of the site go elsewhere. We have built our products without any direct support or official developer API from Ning (such as that which exists on Facebook). This seemingly "laissez-faire" response to our efforts by Ning may be indirect evidence of their likely action in the future toward Friend Connect (despite any blog posts by Marc to the contrary).

WidgetLaboratory has found Ning to be the IDEAL platform for anyone wishing to create a powerful website with little or no effort or programming skills. Ning does not NEED Friend Connect or Open Social. As such, we will be placing our bets with NING and the fact that both Open Social and Friend Connect are passing "fads" that are more hype than actual substance.

EG
WidgetLaboratory.com