I'm not sure if you've seen the new Facebook connect utility, but it's a damn good idea...and I am going to tell you why. Facebook has 140M users worldwide, they recently surpassed MySpace as the only other major player in the space -- and are well on their way to Google style dominance in the social networking realm. They received a well documented round of funding from Microsoft that effectively valued to operation @ $15B but had real trouble getting any other takers @ that price point...that is all gonna change though.
Facebook Connect is a tool that allows users to utilize their FB login on any partner site. Here is why that makes sense for everyone.
The win for users...simplicity and convenience , as well as the portability of your digital identity (the notion that you're now defined by who you know and what you do on the web).
The pitch to potential partners is easy...hey we have 140M users that love Facebook, and we can drive an awful lot of traffic your way that you'd never get before. As a content provider, the more unique hits you get the better off you are, and the higher your ad rates get...so drop in this login tool to your site...and get more hits which means more revenue.
The win for Facebook...they develop ownership of the user, and establish the foundation of a single sign-on, single online identity platform. They are able to gather, aggregate and analyze near real time data about your web usage, habits and interest. That has the potential to create a better profile of individual users, and serve narrowly focused and therefore more frequently clicked ads than say Google, or AOL's ad.com unit or Yahoo.
This single innovation has the potential to monetize FB's massive traffic and catapult them from a cute dorm room app into a real rival (or acquisition target) for Microsoft, Google or Yahoo @ a massive, and attainable price tag near $15B.
Follow up reading:
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/12/facebook-connect-still-tiny-will-grow-fast
http://www.wired.com/software/webservices/news/2008/12/YE8_web
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