More on Facebook Connect

I thought I’d go into more detail on our Facebook Connect feature now that it’s mostly finalized. Our Facebook Connect integration allows members to register for your site with the click of a button. Instead of filling out the rather lengthy registration form and profile setup, all members have to do is authorize your site to grab their Facebook information, and it’s automatically imported for you. Best of all, they do this without ever having to give you their Facebook username/password, so members won’t have any security concerns about giving our their login info.

Let’s outline the entire process with some screen grabs. First, you’ll notice that the login form now has a Facebook Connect button:

Clicking the button will bring up a notification from Facebook to authorize your site to access their Facebook account:

That’s it! Users are then automatically logged into your site with a profile of their own:

We import as much data as we can. If members have a picture (almost everyone does), it’s imported. If members have interests, hobbies, or any of the other fields that webNetwork and Facebook have in common, we import those as well. The entire process takes 10 seconds! It’s so easy, your visitors will have no hesitation in registering for your site.

In addition to the frontend features, I’d like to highlight a couple features you’ll have access to as an administrator. Facebook requires you to generate a Developer Key for the site to plug in with Facebook. Adding that information is a breeze in the admin area:

What’s great about being part of Facebook Connect’s program is that it will also allow you to promote your site right through Facebook. You can submit it to the Facebook Directory, which advertises all apps on Facebook, pay for advertising, and get your friends to join the app (which is a great opportunity to make use of viral marketing, since their friends will also see that they joined).

Let us know what you think!