• TechCrunch, Friday, December 26, 2008 1:45 PM

Google employees like to give nicknames to their own products as well as those of their competitors'. Michael Arrington says he's heard several Googlers refer to Google Friend Connect, the search giant's new social product, as "Friendsense."

Why "Friendsense"? "Because like Adsense, Google plans to use Friend Connect as a shoehorn to insert advertising onto third party Web sites," Arrington says.

Friend Connect officially launched earlier this month, alongside Facebook's competing product, Facebook Connect. It allows publishers to add social features to their site by letting users sign in through a variety of social networks. Arrington notes that publishers will soon be able to add "AdSense-like advertising" to the Friend Connect widgets they've added to their sites, sharing a percentage of the revenue with Google.

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