Facebook has long been working on ways for other web sites to integrate status updates and other features on its site within their own interfaces — and the service, called Connect, seems to be gaining traction. Cable news company CNN is helping out with that. The two companies are letting Facebook users comment on CNN’s [...]
Facebook has long been working on ways for other web sites to integrate status updates and other features on its site within their own interfaces — and the service, called Connect, seems to be gaining traction. Cable news company CNN is helping out with that. The two companies are letting Facebook users comment on CNN’s live web video feed of President Barack Obama’s first State of the Union speech happening this evening.
The way it works is that Facebook users approve Connect integration on the CNN site or via CNN’s Facebook app, then they can comment about the livestream using their Facebook status updates. Users can also comment on each others’ updates, and everything appears back in their Facebook profiles and news feeds, further driving traffic back and forth between Facebook and CNN.
Facebook and CNN previously offered this feature during Obama’s inauguration speech last month. More than 1.5 million status updates were generated by Facebook users on the CNN feed, then — the single largest usage of Connect that I am aware of to date. The real-time conversation (and promotion that the CNN integration received within Facebook, and ahem, from other media outlets) also may have helped cause a spike in traffic to CNN’s site that day. Online publishers, including blogs and video sites, have also been busy using Connect since it was first introduced last fall — including by an Israeli news portal during that country’s elections earlier this month, and on VentureBeat (see below).
The downside of CNN’s inauguration video streaming was that the video itself didn’t work so well for everyone. The second time will be the charm, the broadcaster certainly hopes.
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