• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, September 3, 2009

Facebook Connect is coming to the mobile Web, allowing users to log on to third-party mobile sites and applications with their Facebook ID as they do on the desktop Web. The social networking giant announced its latest mobile initiative at the Nokia World event in Stuttgart, Germany and in a blog post Thursday.

"Beginning today, you'll start to see Facebook Connect available on some of your mobile sites and applications, just as you would on the Web," wrote Facebook Mobile Director Henri Moissinac on the company blog.

At the Nokia event, he also said Facebook Connect for Mobile Web will let developers add social functionality to any app across any operating system, giving users the option to share information with friends and update their status, according to a Forbes Report.

Facebook introduced Facebook Connect for online applications in 2008 and extended the system to iPhone apps earlier this year. On Wednesday, Facebook and Nokia announced they were partnering on a new "lifecasting" service that will let users post location and status updates directly to their Facebook account from the main screen of Nokia devices.

The mobile moves come as Facebook is rapidly expanding its audience on handheld devices. The company said it now boasts 65 million mobile users worldwide -- more than triple the 20 million total of eight months ago. It operates two mobile sites: m.facebook.com, which works on any mobile browser; and x.facebook.com, tailored to touchscreen phones such as the iPhone, Android-powered phones, and Palm and Nokia smartphones.

The sites are available in more than 60 languages, and let users update their status, browse their News Feed and friends' profiles, and view or update Facebook Pages, among other things. Facebook also just released an update app for the iPhone offering a set of new features including video uploading and the ability to text and call friends directly from the app.

With more than 4 billion wireless subscribers globally, however, Facebook still has a long way to go to spread social networking to mobile phones.