• GigaOm, Friday, July 25, 2008 10:48 AM

While some analysts and investors groaned about the lack of news coming out of Facebook's developer conference in San Francisco, GigaOm writer Om Malik was "fairly impressed" with what the company is doing with Facebook Connect. While still short on details, Malik thinks the new program "has a much better chance of succeeding where Microsoft and others have failed."

FC offers a simple Web ID authentication system that allows Facebook social interactions to be embedded in other Web sites. Given Facebook's relationship with many of its always-on users, Malik thinks FC "can out-execute Google, MySpace and everyone else with its ID ambitions." He adds: "this is their one chance of building a monetization engine."

Facebook everywhere: It's kind of like Google's Ad Sense, but the advertising component could potentially have much more impact, leveraging the user's social data and the Web site's content to build a comprehensive profile of each user -- so it can ultimately deliver better targeted advertising. Malik calls it "the second iteration of the Beacon system," but one that "seems to be much less draconian and evil than the first version."

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