San Francisco - Google (NASD: GOOG) has launched a preview of its Friend Connect service, which, like the recently announced Facebook Connect and MySpace Data Availability, will enable social media functions to be added to websites without programming knowledge, CNET News.com reported.

Sites that support Friend Connect will be able to add user registration, friend invites and message posting functionality, connected to social networking sites like Facebook, Google Talk, Hi5, Orkut and Plaxo.

"The Web is getting better by getting more social. We've baked social features into the infrastructure of the Web, and it is not tied to any particular site," David Glazer, Google's director of engineering, told News.com.

"Users can interact with any of their friends anywhere they go on Web, and with any app."

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Related Links:
http://www.news.com/8301-13953_3-9941411-80.html

http://www.google.com/friendconnect