Today was a big day for portable social network data. Both Facebook Connect and Google Friend Connection became available for any 3rd party website to interact with Facebook and Google users and their data. We’ve got our concerns about these kinds of initiatives coming from big companies (see our earlier coverage comparing Facebook Connect to OpenID) but it’s also exciting to imagine what kinds of possibilities programs like this will enable.
The folks over at advertising firm Razorfish put together an interesting slide deck today illustrating what kinds of things would be possible if Amazon and iTunes were to implement Facebook Connect. It’s a very good jumping off point for conversation about the possibilities in general, so we’ve embedded it below.
The following presentation starts out with a basic discussion of Facebook Connect – the action gets started around slide 11. Thanks again to Chris Messina for finding this, as he finds so many things.
Portable Social Graphs – Imagining their Potential
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Filtering reviews or recommendations by your friends list or the interests you’ve expressed on a social network are certainly very interesting ideas but we feel like this is probably just the beginning of what’s possible.
We’d like to be introduced to recommended friends on 3rd party sites based on our friends and interests expressed on our social network. We’d like to be able to see aggregate benchmarks on sites tracking different parts of our lives relative to our circle of friends and the world at large. For example, financial services site Mint might tell us “compared to your circle of friends (as defined by Facebook, WordPress or Twitter) you’ve had an unusual increase in transportation costs lately. Is it time to start asking people to come to your part of town more often for gatherings?” Add some site-specific privacy and things could get really interesting. Knitting social network Ravelry might say “why don’t you not make yourself that red scarf – one of your friends, though we won’t say who, is making one for you right now for the holidays.”
What kinds of things would you like to do with your portable social network data?
See also:Facebook Connect vs. OpenID: Who Will Emerge Victorious?
