• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, December 12, 2013

As useful as Facebook Connect can be to publishers and various other platforms, it’s still no substitute (as an authentication tool) for email. George DiGuido, Head of Email Marketing at Airbnb, tells the story of a “genius developer” who saw fit to drop email in place of FB Connect. The problem was that, particularly abroad, far fewer consumers have Facebook (or are willing to connect to sites with it) than email. In no time, “User adoption rates decreased about 25%,” DiGuido told attendees of OMMA’s Email Insider Summit on Thursday morning. It was a “real horror story.” That said, used in tandem with email, FB Connect integration has been a success for Airbnb, by DiGuido's estimate. For one, he said that those consumers that do connect via FB Connect engage with the service more readily, and convert at a higher rate.