We've all been hearing about Google's Friend Connect, but like the Open Social APIs there may be much to see in the implementation rather than simply agreeing with the idea.

Anyway, it's odd that you go to the site to read about it, and get a file not found - even from Google's own press materials.

Nice rollout!

Google's Friends Connect Sample app, Guacamole Guacamole is a sample site created by Google for demonstrating Friend Connect features.

Google's Director of Engineering, David Glazer has been telling me about this whole process for ages and I see it having some merit, but as with so many technologies, the proof is in the pudding!

It also seems that John McCrea, vice president of marketing at Plaxo has been making a few calls of his own. John pointed out that Google's Friend Connect is "flipping the model" from walled gardens (such as Facebook) to a more open model which also has some merit.

Of course, MySpace can't be left out, and I've heard nothing but warm and fuzzy news of data availability and open standards but for some reason, I just can't see beyond the marketing.

So, this is the first of perhaps a few installments on this subject...so far, not so good.