Why Facebook Connect matters

The recently launched Facebook Connect has been getting a lot of attention, but largely for the wrong reasons. Yes, it means people can use their Facebook logins on other sites, which saves users time and reduces the registration barrier. And yes, it means that people can broadcast their activity on other sites to their friends on Facebook, which as we know is an excellent way to broaden reach and increase brand awareness. These are both good things.

But Facebook Connect means more than this. It’s likely a transformational moment.

Go to the new Citysearch beta and sign in using your Facebook account to see what I mean. On the old Citysearch and the many other sites that incorporate ratings and reviews, forums, tags, wikis, and other user-generated content, the wisdom of crowds succeeds because, in general, people trust the advice of strangers. If 50 people have rated a restaurant, a consumer is fairly comfortable relying on that judgment.

Only one thing is even more trustworthy: the opinions of people I actually know. And that’s why sites such as Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Netflix have been rolling out their own social networks. When I consider a restaurant, hotel, or movie, I benefit from seeing my friends’ ratings first and foremost. The problem is that this requires consumers to manually reconnect with all their friends on each of these sites – or take the risk of uploading their address book, which many are reluctant to do. As a result, the social networks on those individual sites are used by a small percentage of visitors. My network of friends (i.e., my social graph) as it exists on Facebook hasn’t been portable.

Facebook Connect opens the floodgates. As more people in my Facebook network sign in to Citysearch using their Facebook logins, I see their reviews automatically, without having to reconnect with them. Seeing more of my friends’ reviews translates into increased usage, increased contributions, and increased loyalty. As more sites implement Facebook Connect (or its rival Google Friend Connect), my network completely changes: It’s no longer a single place I go to (Facebook), but a posse that follows me around wherever I go. Every product, every service, every purchase consideration online can be strengthened by my network. They’re the angels on my shoulder, wherever I go online.

Before, people had to put in some labor to reap the benefits of having an online social network. But now the level of effort drops. The benefits across sites rise. The number of participants grows. And a tipping point is at hand.