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Ask HN: How important is Facebook Connect for startup?

4 points by testme4ever2 ↗ HN
Just curious, to me, FB Connect is just a lazy way for users to register / login, because I see that when user register, using FB Connect, it is just prefill the form (Name, email) while users have to fill in username (if required by the site) and password.

I see that FB Connect can be used as a marketing tool for a startup (wall posting), but even then, wall posting is a user action, if users do not approve the wall posting, it will not be posted. I can assume that maybe > 50% do not care about the wall posting and will just authorize it anyway.

I do not see the point of having FB Connect, although I sorta see the value of having FB Connect (as another option + user laziness + marketing)

Maybe I am missing something? Can someone help me understand the added value of FB Connect beside sign up registration, login, and wall posting marketing?

Thanks.

9 comments

[ 2.3 ms ] story [ 37.7 ms ] thread
cratermoon
Basically, from the point of view of visitors, people don't want to create yet another username/password they have to remember and hope that the company they signed up with isn't as incompetent as Adobe, Sony, or LinkedIn.

From the standpoint of the company (leaving aside for the moment privacy concerns of the user), if it has users login in with a social ID, it will get access to their profile information from the identity provider.

The downside of using social login is, of course, that many people are rightly concerned with what is being done with their profile data.

testme4ever2
I see. Yes, that's what I thought as well, privacy issue.

But from the visitors point of view, if they use one email for all their forums/site/etc, wouldn't it be the same thing? If I am a user who value my privacy, I would not want to sign in via FB, instead I would use one email and one password for all. Easy to remember as well.

That's why I do not see why FB Connect is an important feature.

cratermoon
One email, but a user would have to be a fool to use the same password across all the sites. Van Neumann knows we have plenty of those, though.
testme4ever2
But wouldn't the same user a fool as well using FB connect as a login to all the forums and marketplaces? If one manage to crack his FB account, then go to the apps list, and sure the hacker has access to all of the forums, marketplaces, and other sites that uses FB Connect.

On the other hand, if you use one email and same password across all sites (but different email password), even if the hacker hacks the email, the hacker does not have the access to forums, marketplaces, etc. The hacker would have to hack each individual sites.

cratermoon
I suggest a thorough course in security threat analysis and attack surfaces.
idoh
The value add for using FB connect is that if you do it right you can grow an app from nothing to millions of users a day, and have a top 10 (in their category) iOS & Android app without spending a dime on paid user acquisition.

The caveat is that the whole thing is a bit of a black art to get right. You can't just bolt it on and expect good things to happen, instead you have to build the whole thing inside-out. What I mean is that you start with FB Connect & Wall posts as the core of the app, and then build something that will get people to agree to the posts and have posts that have good viral properties.

(I used to work on viral FB apps up until a couple months ago, and did the above for two apps)

cratermoon
Yep, the site owner gets lots of users effectively pre-registered in a user database managed for you with a written, documented API for accessing user info. Saves the team from having to write or integration a user registration and login system and avoids the security pitfalls that have gotten multiple companies in trouble.
testme4ever2
Thanks for your input. I see the viral point if there is an auto wall post, but if user has to approve wall post, unless there is an incentive (like in game app when user tweet or FB post, they would get golds or coins for the game), I do not see why users would post in their wall unless they are truly a fan to the app/site/marketplace.

I am asking this question as I am trying to decide if I should implement FB connect to the marketplace startup that I am working on. If I do it, it would be for

sign up / registration

login

wall post when user post a listing

wall post when user buy a listing

the only thing that I find it a value is the wall post, but then if user does not authorize it, then it's useless nonetheless (unless I give incentive to post).

idoh
I could see it as an option for sign up, but you won't get much action from people manually posting things.