Facebook Connect Connecting the Connected

Since Facebook's launch of their new Connect service, thousands of Web sites have adopted it as an alternative to the likes of Windows Live ID, OpenID, and Google Friend Connect. This one is actually in the perfect position to win. Facebook Connect is incredibly easy to use; Facebook has over 130 million active monthly users; and people obviously trust the site with the most intimate of their data, otherwise they wouldn't have 130 million active users.

Facebook Connect allows sites that use the API to access the users Facebook profile information and post information about their activity on the Web sites utilizing Connect to their Facebook profiles, all the while the user maintains total control over the data being shared. In one word - Brilliant. Everybody uses Facebook, so why wouldn't they use their Facebook account to log into other Web sites they use as well?

The only thing that could conceivably stop people from using it, and in an important way weaving Facebook into the very fabric of the Internet, would be privacy concerns. Unlike OpenID, which is really the only log-in solution to solve this very problem, Facebook would be at the center of everything rather than a number of different organizations all overseeing the service. In a perfect world, Facebook might do something like enlisting the help of other trusted technology corporations to help maintain and operate Connect in order to decentralize it, but I'm doubtful that would ever happen. No matter what, Facebook Connect might just be the key to the single sign-on.

Windows 7 - Finally, Microsoft Gets It Right

In case you haven't heard, the new Windows 7 Beta (Build 7000) was leaked to "torrenters" everywhere a few days ago. Since then, I've downloaded and been testing it. (Shh, don't tell Microsoft 'cause it is technically kind of illegal.) Anyway, getting past the legalities, I can say that it definitely is a major improvement over Windows Vista.

The individual improvements are too numerous to mention in detail, but there are some in particular that stick out. First, I have to say that I am definitely a fan of the new taskbar, where there are only icons and hovering over them shows a thumbnail of that window. They also feature a few other goodies, such as displaying the status of a status bar within a window and giving options relevant specifically to that application when you right-click on them. You can even rearrange the order of the icons! (Figuring out that people might want that must have been hard for Microsoft :)

Also, the improvements in performance are definitely noticeable. I haven't had a chance to test it on a netbook yet, but as I can I will definitely let you know how that works.

Finally, the new Aero Peek, which, by pressing Alt+Tab, shows you a thumbnail of each open window and allows you to quickly switch between them, is actually pretty nice to have. It creates an entirely new (for Windows, that is) multitasking environment and certainly helps increase efficiency.

Overall, Windows 7 is most certainly an improvement over Vista, and this time it's actually worth upgrading to from XP. (I've been using the Windows 7 Pre-Beta (Build 6801) since it was originally leaked shortly after Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference as my primary operating system, using XP only for applications that aren't fully supported yet in Windows 7.) It's surprisingly stable for only the first beta, and it supports almost any application that works in either XP or Vista (Although, I still can't find a color print driver for my printer that will work with it.) and I'm sure this time around there will be much better initial software and hardware support from third-parties. Right now, I'd say Windows 7 is on track to be a great operating system, and I can hardly wait to see it once it's finished. (I'd also like to try out the multitouch capabilities, but I don't have a multitouch monitor.)

However, I'd also like to see all of Windows 7 put into a slightly modified package and called Windows Mobile. Microsoft can make as good of a desktop OS that it wants, but if they can't bring that to mobile, they're going to lose in the long-run because it's inevitable that the cell phone will be the next big thing in computing as we see a shift away from the desktop. Microsoft just needs to understand that.