

Ask HN: How important is Facebook Connect for startup? - testme4ever2

Just curious, to me, FB Connect is just a lazy way for users to register &#x2F; login, because I see that when user register, using FB Connect, it is just prefill the form (Name, email) while users have to fill in username (if required by the site) and password.<p>I see that FB Connect can be used as a marketing tool for a startup (wall posting), but even then, wall posting is a user action, if users do not approve the wall posting, it will not be posted.  I can assume that maybe &gt; 50% do not care about the wall posting and will just authorize it anyway.<p>I do not see the point of having FB Connect, although I sorta see the value of having FB Connect (as another option + user laziness + marketing)<p>Maybe I am missing something?  Can someone help me understand the added value of FB Connect beside sign up registration, login, and wall posting marketing?<p>Thanks.
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idoh
The value add for using FB connect is that if you do it right you can grow an
app from nothing to millions of users a day, and have a top 10 (in their
category) iOS & Android app without spending a dime on paid user acquisition.

The caveat is that the whole thing is a bit of a black art to get right. You
can't just bolt it on and expect good things to happen, instead you have to
build the whole thing inside-out. What I mean is that you start with FB
Connect & Wall posts as the core of the app, and then build something that
will get people to agree to the posts and have posts that have good viral
properties.

(I used to work on viral FB apps up until a couple months ago, and did the
above for two apps)

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testme4ever2
Thanks for your input. I see the viral point if there is an auto wall post,
but if user has to approve wall post, unless there is an incentive (like in
game app when user tweet or FB post, they would get golds or coins for the
game), I do not see why users would post in their wall unless they are truly a
fan to the app/site/marketplace.

I am asking this question as I am trying to decide if I should implement FB
connect to the marketplace startup that I am working on. If I do it, it would
be for

sign up / registration

login

wall post when user post a listing

wall post when user buy a listing

the only thing that I find it a value is the wall post, but then if user does
not authorize it, then it's useless nonetheless (unless I give incentive to
post).

~~~
idoh
I could see it as an option for sign up, but you won't get much action from
people manually posting things.

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cratermoon
Basically, from the point of view of visitors, people don't want to create yet
another username/password they have to remember and hope that the company they
signed up with isn't as incompetent as Adobe, Sony, or LinkedIn.

From the standpoint of the company (leaving aside for the moment privacy
concerns of the user), if it has users login in with a social ID, it will get
access to their profile information from the identity provider.

The downside of using social login is, of course, that many people are rightly
concerned with what is being done with their profile data.

~~~
testme4ever2
I see. Yes, that's what I thought as well, privacy issue.

But from the visitors point of view, if they use one email for all their
forums/site/etc, wouldn't it be the same thing? If I am a user who value my
privacy, I would not want to sign in via FB, instead I would use one email and
one password for all. Easy to remember as well.

That's why I do not see why FB Connect is an important feature.

~~~
cratermoon
One email, but a user would have to be a fool to use the same password across
all the sites. Van Neumann knows we have plenty of those, though.

~~~
testme4ever2
But wouldn't the same user a fool as well using FB connect as a login to all
the forums and marketplaces? If one manage to crack his FB account, then go to
the apps list, and sure the hacker has access to all of the forums,
marketplaces, and other sites that uses FB Connect.

On the other hand, if you use one email and same password across all sites
(but different email password), even if the hacker hacks the email, the hacker
does not have the access to forums, marketplaces, etc. The hacker would have
to hack each individual sites.

~~~
cratermoon
I suggest a thorough course in security threat analysis and attack surfaces.

