Facebook Connect to integrate into iTunes
By Alexis • Apr 8th, 2010 • Category: Industry News
- Photo: Facebook
Facebook Connect, astutely called the ‘plumbing of the social web’, is set for a massive integration with one of the Internet’s biggest services, iTunes.
iTunes connected
iTunes is said to be integrating Facebook Connect into its service, according to a report on TechCrunch.com. This makes sense, considering how iTunes have been leveraging their presence on Facebook, particularly their fan page, to connect with users, as well as the song sharing via Facebook (and Twitter) feature it introduced late last year. Apple has also had previous relations with Facebook with the built-in image uploader found in iPhoto, meaning this social web partnership could be a cinch to pull off.
Why this is a big deal
- Photo: Apple
If the rumours are indeed true, this will give Facebook an almost unquestioned lead (and entrenched dominance) in social networking. iTunes is the biggest digital marketplace in the world, as well as the biggest record store in the world, acting as a storefront for all things iPhone, iPad and iPod related. This would mean Facebook will get free exposure on a site frequented by many paying customers, which if leveraged well, could have great revenue implications.
Facebook Connect explained
- Photo: hi5
Facebook, in case you didn’t know – doubtful as that may be – is a social network service with over 400 million active users. In its demanding users to use their real names to sign up for the service, the company has been able to get legitimate information on a huge percentage of the Internet using population.
To cement their lead, the company built what is known as Facebook Connect, a little widget for the social web any website owner can put on their site to allow users to connect to that site with their Facebook details. This has been implemented in commenting for blogs, or authorisation for various other websites that require you give personal information.
And, insofar as Facebook Connect keeps getting adopted by more and more big players, MySpace, hi5 and other social networks will be forced to play for scraps.
Tags for this article: Facebook, Facebook Connect, ipad, itunes
