Given that it’s an identity that 600 million people around the world already use, the push by Facebook into the publisher comment space is undoubtedly going to be a very, very strong one. And the fact that Yahoo is on board with the launch magnifies that strength. But it could have been even stronger.
Facebook originally planned to use Twitter and Google logins for the commenting system as well. But both were scrapped in the final hours leading up to launch for unspecified reasons, according to people familiar with the matter. Actually, to those who have watched the space over the past several months, it’s pretty clear why the options vanished: all the players involved just plain don’t like each other.
Okay, maybe that’s a little extreme. A better way to say it is that the sides don’t want one another using their rival’s social graph to bolster their own social products. We saw this last year when Twitter tried to launch a new Facebook friend import tool, and Facebook blocked it within minutes. Had Facebook tried to launch Twitter login for Facebook Comments using Twitter’s public APIs, you can bet the favor would have been returned just as swiftly.
And then there’s Facebook and Google. Yeah — same deal, but worse. And it’s been going on for years, actually. And it keeps going.
From a user perspective, this is all too bad. Having the option to login with all of these under one system would be great. Of course, from the perspective of startups like Disqus, this social graph war is undoubtedly welcome since they’re a neutral third-party that is free to utilize all the services.
For their part in this battle, Facebook only has this to say:
This is an update to a Comments product that’s been widely used since February 2009. As part of the update, we’ve added Yahoo! as a third party login, and hope to add additional providers in the future.
Google declined to comment. Twitter has not yet responded to our request for comment.
Update: Here’s Twitter’s comment:
We are not participating in Facebook’s new system for leaving comments on web sites. We will continue to have conversations with Facebook about ways in which we can work together.
Facebook is the world’s largest social network, with over 845 million monthly active users. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in February 2004, initially as an exclusive network for Harvard students. It was a huge hit: in 2 weeks, half of the schools in the Boston area began demanding a Facebook network. Zuckerberg immediately recruited his friends Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes, and Eduardo Saverin to help build Facebook, and within four months, Facebook added 30 more college networks. The original...
Google provides search and advertising services, which together aim to organize and monetize the world’s information. In addition to its dominant search engine, it offers a plethora of online tools and platforms including: Gmail, Maps, YouTube, and Google+, the company’s extension into the social space. Most of its Web-based products are free, funded by Google’s highly integrated online advertising platforms AdWords and AdSense. Google promotes the idea that advertising should be highly targeted and relevant to users thus providing...
Twitter, founded by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams in March 2006 (launched publicly in July 2006), is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to post updates 140 characters long. Twitter “is a real-time information network that connects [users] to the latest stories, ideas, opinions, and news.” The service can be accessed through a variety of methods, including Twitter’s website; text messaging; instant messaging; and third-party desktop, mobile, and web applications. Twitter is currently available in...
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