CNET goes live with Facebook Connect

I've just been informed by the engineering team here that we have completed integration of the Facebook Connect log-in system with CNET. Now, when you want to comment on a blog post on a CNET site, or add a user review, you can log in with your Facebook ID and password. If your computer is already logged in to Facebook, you won't have to log in at all.

There's a one-time step you might have to take first: If you already have a CNET ID and password, you can connect your CNET account and your Facebook account. Just log out of CNET, log back in using the Facebook option, and follow the step to merge your IDs. From that point on, you can sign in to CNET with your Facebook ID if you're not already logged in to Facebook.

As I've said before, the benefit for us, and for other sites that use this tool, is that Facebook Connect makes it easier to log in to our sites (since more people are likely to frequently use and remember their Facebook credentials than their various IDs for different sites), and also users who contribute to our stories can have that activity reflected on their Facebook streams. That's basically free advertising for CNET. Sending CNET comments to Facebook is completely optional for users, though, if you feel that your CNET activity would clutter your Facebook feed.

Drop a note to editor@webware.com if you want to share feedback on our implementation with the team that did it.

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