Google Friend Connect
released on Blogger,
but still trying to fly under our
Googling Social radar...
Google instead of Friend Connect
calls it Following on Blogger.
You can try out Friend Connect right now if you have a Google profile in the widget in the upper right hand corner of this blog under the heading "Followers" by clicking the join button. Confirm your join request and here you can enroll in Friend Connect if you do not already have a Google Social profile.
Next, click one of the avatars of those who have already joined and add the person as a friend and send them an introductory blurb.
The next screen you will see is their Google profile, links to their social networks and their Google Reader shared items. This is Google's social bookmarking application.
NOTE: All these links open in a new tab so you will not lose this page.
Here is the lowdown on the rest of the Google Social Network and Bookmarking application.
Here is JohnT's blog post from July 28 when he predicted Google Going Social before I was even talking about it publicly.
Here are two sites you can play with Google Friend Connect on, just one part of the Google Social Network: Googling Social.
Social networks might actually be semi-anti-social
Google Friend Connect for Blogger Users
How to add the Friend Connect widget to Blogger.
For those of you who do not know how to use Google Social, called Googling Social, I have instructions to create a Google profile, add friends to from Gmail and get started with Google Reader which is Google's social bookmarking application.
Currently, the links to get to the pieces of Googling Social are hard to find so the best starting point is someone elses Google profile, so here is mine with a link to my Wickedly Evil Social Marketing Blog where you can find instructions to making friends in Gmail and Google Reader.
Chris Lang's Google Profile. Chris Lang's Social Marketing Blog
Look in the upper right hand corner of the page, the link is "my profile" and it is right behind your gmail address.
Word of warning, the Gmail address that you are logged into will be your public Gmail address in Google Reader and how you make friends thru Gmail. So if you do not want that Gmail address to be public, choose one that you want to use.
You only get one Google profile no matter how many Gmail addresses you have, so choose wisely.
If you have any questions you can email me from my contact page on my site. Also if you want to add me as a friend in Google Reader, send me an email at chrislang[at]gmail[dot]com.
Obfuscations in the address are used to fool spam bots that harvest addresses so just replace the monikers with the appropriate email characters.
Cheers! = Chris Lang and JohnT from the driveway and the inaugural Indiggnation driveway cast.
