Website owners can install "social gadgets" that allow visitors to join a site. Once they join, they can invite others to join, leave comments, find and befriend other users, rate or recommend the site, as well as a number of other social functions.
Users can log into Friend Connect using their Google ID or a number of third-party sites, including Twitter, Yahoo and AOL Instant Messenger.
Friend Connect doesn't currently fit in with Google's other social pieces. But it's easy to see how it could work like Facebook Connect, which lets visitors to third-party websites interact with the site and other visitors using their Facebook profiles. If Google were to put the pieces of its social puzzle together, Friend Connect could be Google's connection to the outside world.
