In his latest post, Rafe Needleman over at CNET identifies a list of sites that have implemented Facebook Connect, and which are using Google Friend Connect.

So far, and perhaps not too surprisingly, Facebook is leading the way.

Needleman believes the lead is due to three main reasons:

1. Users are (rightly or wrongly) comfortable with Facebook as a repository for personal information, and less so with Google.
2. Logging into a site with Facebook credentials can feel much the same as logging in with a site’s own username.
3. Sites get a marketing bonus when they adopt the service.

I would add to that list three more reasons:

1. Facebook activity, such as commenting on blogs, get percolated up into a user’s activity feed on Facebook, potentially broadcasting their comment to hundreds of their friends.  That ultimately draws in more traffic than Google, especially since Orkut’s usage is much lower than Facebook.
2. Orkut’s profile privacy control is very poor.  It only allows you to set visibility on select elements of your profile, and beyond that you can’t hide much about your profile.  Facebook’s privacy controls are much more granular, and it is much easier to make your entire profile private if you wish.
3. More people use Facebook as their personal networking choice, and as I have written before, it is likely that more and more people will continue to standardize on it as their personal networking site.

Read the full article on Facebook Connect at CNET.

Filed under: Consumer Web, Google, Social Computing