Facebook Connect gaining momentum

I’ve mentioned a few times that I’m a big fan of Facebook Connect. It’s easy for end users to understand and use, and relatively straightforward for developers to implement also. I’ve been working on adding Connect support to ShareEdmonton, and haven’t run into any major roadblocks yet.

Recently, I started looking for information about other sites that have integrated Facebook Connect. Here are some highlights:

• AllFacebook currently lists 103 Connect-enabled sites in its directory.
• Last week, Facebook launched Connect for the iPhone, and also announced a new round of the fbFund for developers building apps with Connect.
• Also last week, a couple of desktop apps launched Facebook Connect support, including TweetDeck.
• Earlier this month, Inside Facebook discovered that the Calgary Airport is using Facebook Connect for its free Wi-Fi service.
• Back in February, All Facebook estimated that the total number of Facebook Connect users was approaching 1 million.

And most recently, I found this very interesting post about Citysearch, one of the first websites to integrate with Facebook Connect:

In the four months the site has been testing Facebook Connect, 94 percent of reviewers have published their reviews to Facebook, where an average of 40 people see them and 70 percent click back to Citysearch. That has translated into new members: daily registrations on Citysearch have tripled.

That’s fairly impressive – every item shared through Facebook generates 28 unique visitors! Though I’m not quite sure how they got those numbers, so take them with a grain of salt.

I fully expect Facebook Connect to keep gaining momentum!