Making Web More Social Has Google, Facebook Less So

Though Facebook cited privacy concerns in pulling the plug on a partnership with Google aimed at making the Web more social, dollar signs are more likely behind its withdrawal from Friend Connect, the Washington Post reports. "What Facebook is after really is control over their users," one analyst says of the threat to the company's advertising hold.

The rift that opened just days after last month's Friend Connect launch raises questions about the future of social networking. Such efforts to let users network on multiple sites as they surf the Internet, rather than only within a closed site, threaten revenues for Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and their competitors. These sites will need "to evolve," said Google’s engineering director. (More social networking stories.)