Facebook Connect - Pros and Cons

A couple of months back, Facebook released a new set of widgets aimed at ‘making the web more social’. Liking, Commenting and Signing In had never been so easy. There are pros and cons to the system; here are some worth weighing up.

Single-sign-on

Pros: Your users don’t have to worry about yet another username and password – and it takes some of the pain out of signing up for a site. You can also pull certain data from their Facebook user profile, if they grant permission.

Cons: As long as more than one player is offering a “single-sign-on” service, there’s really no such thing. Players like Microsoft, OpenID and Google Accounts aren’t going anywhere any time soon.

Trusted identity

Pros: Facebook users generally use their real identity

Cons: There can be  complications with the need for data to be stored on both Facebook and local Databases. And what happens when the Facebook account disappears, but the user wants to log into your site?

Privacy

Pros: Users feel safe in the knowledge that much of their data is being stored by Facebook (a  brand they may or may not trust).

Cons: Some of the control (and visibility) of your user data is taken out of your hands

Sharing

Pros: There’s no doubt that full Facebook Integration can seed additional traffic to your site, via comments, “likes” and activity updates to a user’s feed. The capacity to build your audience is practically unlimited in a good implementation.

Cons: Facebook requires that some of their user experience – including non-skinnable Facebook buttons and pop-ups – be placed on your site. It’s pretty hard to make it look wonderful (but it doesn’t have to look awful).

In most cases, the prospect of building traffic will far outweigh any negatives, but it’s worth considering the full impact – and the alternatives – before jumping on the bandwagon.