
Thanks to Yahoo, Facebook is King of Identity - boundlessdreamz
http://gigaom.com/2009/12/02/thanks-to-yahoo-facebook-is-king-of-identity/
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thwarted
_And then this deal with Yahoo! Facebook Connect is a simple way to use
Facebook ID and connect to other non-Facebook websites, and then if you want,
send those interactions back to your Facebook page. For instance, if you
logged into GigaOM and left a comment using Facebook Connect, you can tell
your friends that you did so._

While a single point to get identity/authentication from is nice, and Facebook
is poised to pull it off (despite that I'd personally prefer something more
open, portable and federated) more so that previous big contenders in this
area (MS Passport comes to mind), I think the jury is still out on if this --
tell your friends you did something, like posted a comment -- is a valid use
case, no matter how many people keep bringing that up as one of the possible
_future_ powers of Facebook.

While my Facebook network is relatively small and is composed mainly of people
I've met in real life and have a relationship with that is not solely on-line,
the actual interaction I get on Facebook for my "internet actions" (all
imported via Facebook/Friendfeed integration), and the interaction I see other
people get on Facebook for things they've posted (mostly directly posted,
since few people use Friendfeed and the Friendfeed Facebook app), is extremely
minimal. Admittedly, this could be because my network is, in general, boring.
I think there are two core reasons the interaction is minimal.

First, the _majority_ of anyone's network is not going to actually cares that
someone made a comment on GigaOM. If they did, they'd be on GigaOM, not on
Facebook. And if they're on/frequent GigaOM because they are interested in the
content there, there's no reason to do their GigaOM-centric interaction
anywhere else.

Secondly, Facebook being a proxy for reporting on all internet (or real-life)
activity adds a layer of indirection but doesn't add significant value.
There's no incentive to move a conversation that already exists on GigaOM to a
Facebook comment thread. I've been disappointed that a lot of Facebook
interaction (for what I've observed) has been of the "me too" variety. The
ability to click through and view the original source of the content is too
easy: the Internet itself is already federated (AOL and Compuserve tried that
with their own walled gardens).

So Facebook can be a clearing house for activity, but I think it'll end up
being a jumping off point, which in itself has significant value from the
standpoint of aggregation (this is the main use of Friendfeed, in fact). But
there a lot of other players in the aggregated content market that focus more
on the user generating the content than on the consumers (tumblr, posterous),
which are even easer to access than Facebook, since you don't _need_ an
account on a single site to consume them and the _entire_ content is available
on the original site. This very comment will get truncated once imported to
Facebook (through backtype and Friendfeed).

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theli0nheart
There are some places I don't want Facebook, and email is one of them.

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thetrumanshow
Search is another. Call it a total lack of trust on my part.

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figital
I've rarely been letting other sites access my Facebook data ... because I
don't really trust them (they sell my data to companies who then use it to
trick me with phhotos of my friends). When given the choice it seems easiest
and safest (least revealing) to use my twitter login.

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bootload
_"... I've rarely been letting other sites access my Facebook data ... because
I don't really trust them ..."_

Here's why figital is cautious, _"Dark Stalking on Facebook"_ ~
<http://pjf.id.au/blog/?position=590> (author
<http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=pjf>)

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pyre
Facebook just announced updated privacy controls, etc. How does that article
evaluate _after_ these are place?

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bootload
_"... How does that article evaluate after these are place? ..."_

Ask pjf yourself is one way to find out. If I get the chance I'll ask.

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pierrefar
So any bets on when Facebook might buy out Yahoo!?

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dabent
Once upon a time Yahoo was trying to buy out Facebook. How times have changed!

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spazmaster
If you can't beat 'em (or buy 'em), join 'em!

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enjo
Facebook was already the king of identity. The best thing about facebook is
that it is not anonymous and represents in virtual form my true identity.

This is just yet another logical extension of that identity into other
domains. I'm a big fan of what they're doing with Facebook connect.

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ams6110
Is it just me or did anyone else have a lot of trouble reading that press
release excerpt because of all the exclamation points. I know that the
trademark name "Yahoo!" includes the bang but I found it really annoying.

