To socialize these days, hundreds of millions of people every month turn to social networking sites such as MySpace or Facebook.
But what if the Web itself worked as a social network?
Google announced today another step in what its engineers see as that inevitable evolution. A new free service from the Mountain View, Calif., tech giant will allow any Web site to become a social site.
Using Google's new Friend Connect product, any Web page, whether it is devoted to curling or pizza or a folk singer, can allow visitors to make and connect with other "friends" who visit that site. Like any major social network today, any Web page using Friend Connect could easily present to each user the names and pictures of friends and potential friends. Those people could then post messages to one another.
The announcement from Google comes at a time of ferment and speculation over how people will socialize on the Web.
While large social networks such as Facebook and MySpace are judged to be worth billions, they have also drawn criticism for being "walled gardens" -- places that allow members to connect easily only while at those sites.
The Friend Connect service raises the possibility that the kind of kibitzing now largely contained in a handful of mega-sites could be easily spread anywhere.
"We're in the middle of a huge change," said David Glazer, an engineering director working on Google's social initiative, in an interview. "Wherever people go on the Web, they want to have their friends with them, and this makes it possible."
Friend Connect is aimed at the millions of Web sites that could benefit from having members interact, but are unable to open their Web pages to such connections because of a lack of technical expertise or hardware.
With Friend Connect, the owner of a Web site would add a snippet of code to its page. Google's servers would handle the rest.
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