• eweek, Wednesday, November 4, 2009 3:18 PM

Google's Friend Connect accounts now let users share information about themselves for chance discovery, as well as a private email feature for users to connect with others they meet online through Friend Connected sites. The search giant also added an AdSense section to let Friend Connect site owners serve Google ads matched both to their site's content and to the interests users publicly share on the site.

No, Friend Connect is no Facebook, but the service is presently used by over 9 million sites, with account for over 500 million unique viewers of Friend Connected Web pages each month. While Google's social ambitions are unknowable, that's what we would call a pretty secure toehold in a highly volatile industry.

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