Some time ago I wrote that a war was coming, yesterday the strike begun.
Yesterday, Google and Facebook both launched their respective “connect” infrastructure. I received the Google mail announcement at 6pm and Facebook announced it on the developpers’ blog at 12pm. I actually had subscribed to receive news from Facebook Connect but never received any mail. It seems like Google has credit for the first move.
This morning, I started trying to add “Connect” features to this site…
Google Friend Connect
I started by adding the Google Friend Connect widget (it is still there).
It initially took me less than 5 minutes to setup my Google Friend Connect account and get working code for a widget to put in here. As easy as using Google AdSense, follow the wizard and you are done. It then took me 5 other minutes to tweak the site’s design.
10 minutes and every Google, Orkut or Plaxo user can register to this site and I can invite my friends on those platform to join me in. Problem is I do not use Orkut nor Plaxo and a very small amount of my friends actually have a Google account.
But they almost all have a Facebook account.
Facebook Connect
Then, I went to the Facebook Connect documentation and followed the instructions.
Instead of a wizard and files to download you have to follow instructions, create new files and copy/paste code. And then you can have a “Facebook Connect” button on your site. Nothing else. To do more you need to understand the Facebook platform, read the documentation and hand-code some FBML.
This is going to take me more than 10 minutes to be able to invite my friends here…
I guess the Google announcement forced them to release Facebook Connect with missing bits but there already seem to be rumors about a Connect plugin for Wordpress. I think I can wait a week or two 
The Winner
Facebook wins, my mother is on Facebook…
Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourselves. Choose your future. Choose life… But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin’ else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you’ve got heroin?
