Pros and Cons of Building a Site around FBConnect

I'm not so sure about FBConnect. The author says that it makes it easier to launch since you don't have to build a registration system. Well, that's true, but you do have to hook into FBConnect which (for me) would be just as much if not more work.

The author similarly leaves out what I think are the most important pitfalls. Namely, that Facebook can simply decide to end FBConnect at anytime or make it so much less usable (like they did to applications) that it essentially kills you. The more users you get, the more valuable that data is, but with FBConnect you only have that data so long as you're on Facebook's good graces. Since you don't have any identifier (email, username, etc.) if Facebook terminates FBConnect, you may still have the rows in the database, but now they're not mapped to anyone since you no longer have access to Facebook.

Likewise, the more data you give Facebook, the more of a business advantage you give them should they ever decide that your time is over. They can easily track what sites are hot, how users use the applications based on what gets posted to walls, etc. Then they can run you out of business with something better integrated - like they did with some apps.

Without email addresses, you can't contact users. I hate sites that constantly spam me, but some email is valuable.

Finally, you're saying that your site isn't good enough for users to spend the time to open an account there. If you've made something good, your pitch shouldn't be, "well, it's really only worth using because you don't have to put in a new password." If you aren't getting an email from that person, then a registration is no-hassle (like here at HN). I put in a username and repeat a password twice (nearly as easy as logging in).

FBConnect really just looks like an attempt by Facebook to lock out competition both in the social network arena as well as the application arena. They can easily target your users for their own replacement of your site, they're getting your data on what's popular, they're in a position to shut you down should you impact their business plans.

Facebook Connect is fantastic if you want to build an app that requires access to a user's social graph without being obtrusive. Anything else and it feels a little pointless.

That said, there are a million good reasons to access that social graph. We wanted to use it so that when you signed up to our site, we could see which companies your friends had worked at in the present/past, and thus show you jobs your friends may be able to refer you to. Since FB didn't accept us to their program, we had to build the connection infrastructure from scratch which a) sucked up a lot of time and resources and b) will never be as successful as using an existing network.

The limited user base is the one that would do it for me. 100million people may seem like a lot, but that's less than 7% of internet users (http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm).

I'm fairly sure that I wouldn't want to be turning away 9/10 of the people visiting my site...

You could go with OpenID - or use a third party like RPXNow.

The real argument for FBConnect or any other connect mechanism (ie google's and myspace's connect) is that you suddenly get to use those social networks as distribution and promotional channels for your apps.

so its not so much about the ease of development/integration (which it actually is if you already have a registration system) its about user acquisition and reducing the barriers in doing so.

facebook built fbconnect. it's okay