• December 2, 2008

Facebook Connect, the technology that lets members of the social networking site sign onto third-party sites with their Facebook identification, went live on Monday.

Originally announced in July at Facebook's f8 developer conference, the data portability initiative allows people to bring profile information, friends, photos, events, and groups to participating sites.

Initial Facebook Connect partners include the SixApart blogging sites, Digg, CitySearch and Twitter. The Web sites of The Discovery Channel, The San Francisco Chronicle, the geneology network Geni and video hub Hulu will add the new feature in the next few weeks, according to The New York Times.

The article suggested that through Connect, Facebook could use information posted by its users to help other sites deliver more targeted ads. Likewise, those sites could tell Facebook what its members are doing elsewhere, helping make its own ads more targeted.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said the company had no plans to explore advertising potential with the program other than increasing ad revenue as a result of increased traffic.--Mark Walsh