In my continuing effort to broaden my connections to the various communities and individuals who use the Web, I have added Google Friend Connect (it’s over there in the sidebar). What is it? According to Google, Friend Connect allows you to “Build your community” and “Increase engagement” without having to do any programming.

Robert Scoble turned me on to it. He did have some reasonable reservations about how easy it would be for the average Web user to install on his or her blog, but even with my limited skills I was able to have it up and running in under five minutes without any problems. I imagine that the process will be streamlined over time, but right now it is not a steep learning curve. A motivated newbie could set things up without shedding tears. However, that said, I think it is fair to say that for some people the task of using an FTP application and having to manually add files to a blog directory may seem a bit much. Lots of people are used to having everything set up for them (like, fill out the sign up form and voila!—it’s ready to go), and technical stuff is all handled in the background by somebody else whose job it is to do the techie thing in the background, like quietly and unobtrusively sometime in the wee hours when decent folks are asleep and dreaming of non-electric sheep or horses or whatever.

There are also a number of other “social tools” available that Google has tied in to the Friend Connect API. All of them require just about the same amount of minor work to install. I think that they are worth looking into. What do you think?

In the meantime, I hope that you, dear reader, will consider joining one of my networks. I’d like to think that doing so will lead us both to a better level of interaction.