3 Million Blogs Have Installed Google Friend Connect

Today Google has announced that their Friend Connect widget has been installed on “nearly three million blogs, with someone following a new blog every second.” That would mean that there are nearly 86,400 users following a blog every day. Today Google has also announced the integration of Google Friend Connect with Blogger. I’ve posted a video below of what that integration looks like.

This is a big announcement as Facebook Connect has yet to publicly release any details although I previously wrote that Facebook Connect usage is at least around one million users. Along with Blogger integration, users will now be able to share the blogs that they follow within their Friend Connect profiles. It’s clear that the race is on to capture our public social graphs and Google Friend Connect is proving to be a formidable competitor to Facebook Connect.

One thing that’s not as clear is how this is going to drive significant traffic to blogs. Currently Facebook provides news feed integration which is a huge value proposition for developers. Developers can also send notifications and they have total access to the Facebook API which has numerous built in viral channels.

Viral channels aren’t really necessary for the time being though as the novelty of installing a Google Friend Connect widget is proving to be highly effective. Have you installed Facebook Connect or Google Friend Connect? Which do you prefer?

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