I saw a Beta version of this a while ago and it seems to have finally happened. In very simple terms, Google is taking advantage of the massive user base they have (who do you know who doesn’t have a gmail account?) by allowing visitors to use embedded Google gadgets which take advantage of Google’s Open Social API.
So visitors can:
- Sign in with their Google, Yahoo, AIM or OpenID account.
- Interact with other visitors by making friends, sharing media, posting comments, playing games, and the usual suspects.
- Invite friends from other social networks and contact lists to join your site or blog.
Setting it up is as easy as going here (agree to some mysterious terms & conditions that may or may not donate all of your sites earnings to google) and clicking on setup new site.
From there you literally just copy and paste the apps you want or if you’re real clever, make your own and hey presto..
A social network that arrives with your visitor. Whether I would appreciate being invited to ’socialise’ on a couple of new sites a day isn’t nearly as worrying as whether or not I would have time for it.
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