# Google Friend Connect Now Serverside

By [Continuations](https://continuations.com) · 2009-03-13

google, facebook, friend connect, api, ident, identity

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Maybe yesterday was a big news day or maybe this has been known for a while and I simply wasn’t aware, but I thought that [Google’s announcement yesterday of the Google Friend Connect API](http://googlesocialweb.blogspot.com/2009/03/introducing-google-friend-connect-api.html) was a **big deal** (and yet seemed to pass virtually unnoticed – was off Techmeme within hours).  When Friend Connect was first announced, I was [pretty negative about how they had chosen to implement it](http://continuations.com/post/34685264/friend-or-foe-connect).  I did hedge at the time by saying “at least in its current incarnation” – and now Google has shown that they are taking this in the direction that it needs to go.  As I wrote yesterday, I believe that this is by and large [good news for owners of smaller sites and services](http://continuations.com/post/85818601/identity-and-smaller-sites).  Still, I am hoping to see an independent service arise that does the same by combining smaller sites into a network.  Now that one can compare the Google and Facebook Connect APIs (something I am planning to do this weekend), the structure of such an API should be fairly clear.  

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*Originally published on [Continuations](https://continuations.com/google-friend-connect-now-serverside)*