As if social networking craze weren’t spreading across the globe quickly enough, Google recently announced a new service  - Friend Connect – that can turn any website into a social networking site. All the webmasters have to do is add “ a snippet” of code to their page and Google takes care of the rest.  No matter how obscure a site is, it can still allow its users to meet and connect without the hassle of signing up for a whole new account. Innovative, or inevitable?

The implications of a company with as much influence as Google promoting this idea are huge – it can’t be hard to imagine in just the next few years, a social networking site (powered by Google!) that connects all pages of internet. However, I’m curious as to exactly how this system can work. Part of the premise of launching this project is previous user complaints that sites such as Facebook and MySpace require you to be within the site to connect with friends. How will Google circumvent this?  I know I for one tend to browse site like Facebook using my own profile as “home base.”

In any case, I don’t feel Facebook should be too worried yet – I know I will still prefer my already-establish “closed” community of college friends and all my nifty applications, although I’m sure I’ll tap into “Friend Connect” at some point for some of my more obscure hobbies… like duct-tape wallet making. The Google engineers themselves point out that the venture is more “’about helping the ‘long tail’ of sites become more social’.” What exactly this will do to the dynamic of the internet is yet to be seen, but I can bet that the impact won’t be small. In the meantime, it could be fun to keep an eye on FAS.research.