Have you ever been sick and tired of how many sites around the web require that you enter in details about who you are, just so you can use certain features of the site? Are you getting sick of giving out your email address or having to keep track of usernames and passwords all over the web? Sure, something like KeePass makes it a little easier to keep track of, but its still an inconvenience.

With the progression of social networks such as Facebook, lots of people are finding it really annoying having to keep track of all this information. You go to many different sites and you set yourself up on all these different sites just so you can continue to participate in the discussions with your friends there. But wouldn’t it be easier if you didn’t have to do that all over the web?

Well, Google has offered a way to change that. Their Friend Connect system allows you to use your Google, Yahoo, Twitter, AOL, orkut, Plaxo or any OpenID account to participate in sites all over the web. Using Google’s Friend Connect system, you can log in to sites without having to share your private information with those sites, but still offering the site master an assurance that you are someone real, not just another spammer.

Friend Connect offers lots of features that are traditionally only on social networking sites like Facebook. In fact, where something like Facebook offers a single place that tries to aggregate everything and you have to go to Facebook to see it or participate, its kind of the opposite with Google Friend Connect. You take the social network with you to Friend Connect enabled websites.

And this is one of the reasons I’ve started adding the features to this website.

Across the bottom of every page on this site you will now see a Friend Connect bar. It allows you to login to Friend Connect, see the latest Friend Connect events for a page or the site, as well as comment on the site like a wall post. The comments are across the whole site, not just per post. This means that the discussion isn’t limited to just that page you are on at the time.

On the bar, you can also see other members of this site. This can also use Google Profiles to allow you to share information about yourself if you choose to if you login using your Google account.

One of the first features I added to the site was to integrate Friend Connect with the comments on this blog. This means that if you are logged in to Friend Connect, and a member of this site, you will never need to enter in your personal information when you post a comment. Even more useful, if you do have a Google Profile, it will link to your profile.

As an aside, Google Profile allows you to share as much or as little information about yourself and also link to as many of your own sites as you wish. It is a very useful product. You can even use it to allow people to contact you directly without giving out your email address.

Coming to the site next will be recommendations and ratings. These will allow you to recommend posts to friends of yours. They will also allow you to rate a post and let me know what you think of it. You will even be able to offer a critique of the post as part of your rating.

And all this happens without you ever having to share your information or details with me.

Friend Connect is still young and the number of sites implementing it already is still relatively small. But its growing every day and the convenience it offers is definitely worth a lot to me. The privacy benefits it offers you are also definitely worth taking a look at it. And the fact it uses OpenID means that, unlike Facebook’s offering, you don’t have to be a member of any specific site or service to use it. I think by now, most people have a Google, Yahoo, Twitter, AOL, orkut, or Plaxo account. :-)

Just remember, instead of going to the social network, Friend Connect allows you to take your social network with you as you travel the web. :-)