On Wednesday Google released a new addition to Friend Connect, the Social Bar. I tried to add some Friend Connect widgets to the sidebar of my blog before, but failed miserably. Somehow none of the widgets displayed anything. Maybe adding them as text widgets wasn’t the right way. Though actually, I have no idea what went wrong. Maybe just another proof that this blog’s tagline is correct. 
Anyway, the new Social Bar is a navigation bar which includes the basic widgets like joining and commenting on the blog. It is very easy to install (just some code has to be added somewhere to the <body> of the site), and, as an additional benefit, keeps the sidebar clean. The navigation bar can be installed on top or bottom of a site.
As usual, users can log into Friend Connect either with a Google account or an OpenID. Also users can choose between their Google, Plaxo, Twitter, and Orkut profiles. The Plaxo profile can be activated via OAuth while the Twitter one requires username and password. Time for OAuth on Twitter, I guess. I am clueless how this works with Orkut. I don’t have an account there.
Google Profile
I am not sure if I’ll keep the Social Bar on my blog. So far it isn’t really enhancing this blog’s functions but it’s quite nice and may change overt time when more functions will be added. Currently it’s up here just for testing purposes. So if you want to comment or join the site, please do so. But I can’t promise that the bar will still be up next month.
Tags: Friend Connect, Google, Social Bar, Twitter
