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Google's Friends Connect service allows websites to register users, and embed social networking services into their pages, with minimal programming. Users can then find their friends who are registered at any Friends Connect website, and interact with them. According to Google, the service allows you to surf the net with your friends, even when you're not in the same place as them.

"The idea is that you take your friends with you," explained Anthony House, corporate communications specialist at Google. "On a forum site, you're all signed in and can comment, but you haven't established a relationship with other people, whereas in Friend Connect you can say that these 20 or 30 users are people I'm friends with. They can offer you functionality that can let you interact

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with your friends and the broader community."

He explained that the aim is to transform the entire internet into a series of social networks - with websites playing the role of the 'applications' that you find on sites such as Facebook or MySpace.

"In an abstract sense - you have some social networks that have applications that sit within a social network," said House. "This is more an idea that the social network sits inside the web."

"So, you have something that - if it were sat inside the walls of a social networking site - would be considered an 'app'. Outside that it would be considered a 'website'."

Meanwhile, Facebook has launched its own Facebook Connect service; allowing its members to log into partner websites using their Facebook profiles. Friends will also be informed when you've posted something to one of these other sites, whether that's a blog, review or comment on a forum.

Google's House intimated that it will take time for users and website developers to appreciate the capabilities that these new services bring.

"With all these technologies, we're still getting used to using them, and we're still at the front edge - as people get more mature in their use of social tools, it'll become more like the way we interact with people offline," he said. "I think that Friends Connect is a step in that direction."