Google to Connect Friends Across the Web

For example, one of the first Friend Connect customers will be independent musician Ingrid Michaelson, who like most entertainers has an official Web site.

Her fans can befriend one another if they visit her MySpace page. But by using the Friend Connect service, Michaelson will be able to allow fans to connect with their friends, or make friends among fellow fans, without having to leave the site. Visitors will be able to see which of their friends are posting comments or attending concerts.

Friend Connect is "about helping the 'long tail' of sites become more social," Glazer said. "Many sites aren't explicitly social and don't necessarily want to be social networks, but they still benefit from letting their visitors interact with each other."

Friend Connect will be available for now to a limited number of Web sites, maybe a dozen or so, company officials said. Within a few months, it is likely to become more broadly available.

While Google will receive no immediate financial reward, Glazer said the company benefits when "the Web is healthy." When more people use the Web, more people see the ads that Google runs.

Friend Connect also boosts Google's standing in the social networking field, analysts said, where because of its size the company has ample ability to catch up.

"Google has been a fast follower behind Facebook, but they're still Google," said Ray Valdes, research director of Web services for Gartner. "This will have an impact for sure."

Over the past year, even as tens of millions of people have signed up for social networks, the industry landscape has been in the throes of a rapid evolution.

Users have discovered the hassles of registering with multiple networks and having to "import" their friends list from one site to another.

Those problems have led some in the industry to support standards that allow for sharing of social information across Web sites. In a similar vein, MySpace and Facebook announced initiatives last week to make it easier for users to transport their information.

For the companies involved, the burgeoning social behavior on the Web is what's at stake.

Just as Google, through its search engine, is a gatekeeper for much of the Web's content, the company that succeeds in helping consumers socialize on the Web could reap similar benefits.

Still, there is a great deal of uncertainty over what will happen.

Some analysts have suggested that Facebook and MySpace might be fads. Others have speculated that their use could decline as more sites add "friend" features, or as the Web itself becomes a social place.

"The real question for a Facebook or a MySpace is: Is it best to think of them as a place like Studio 54 -- a place where everyone wants to get in because all their friends are in -- or is it more like some kind of utility?" asked John McCrea, vice president of marketing for Plaxo, a company that maintains relationship information for 20 million members. "This is the evolution of the walled garden to the social Web."