Two days ago I discussed two social networking applications that will allow local business sites the ability to add social networking abilities to their websites. Well, there’s been a change in one of them.

Facebook has told Google that it won’t participate in the Google FriendConnect application because Google won’t promise to protect the privacy of Facebook users. That’s a big deal to Facebook and I commend them for their stand on this.

What this means for local business site owners is you’ll now have two equally viable choices for building community into your local business website. But which choice you make will depend on what you value more - privacy for your users or flexibility. Facebook Connect will allow your users the ability to network with other Facebook users and the local Groups feature will be an excellent addition to any local site, but you won’t be able to network too well outside of Facebook and your local community. On the other hand, Google FriendConnect will allow your website users to network with people on various other social sites, Facebook excluded, and there will be no guarantee of privacy.

This isn’t to say that either of these tools will be better than any other. It’s that you’ll have to decide which one is right for you - and for your website users.

Caroline Melberg
Melberg Marketing
Blue Chip Marketing Tips
Small Business Mavericks

Tags: facebook connect, google friendconnect, local business, privacy, social networking

This entry was posted on Friday, May 16th, 2008 at 10:16 am and is filed under Social Media, Tools for Small Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.