Answers.com Now Only With Facebook and Own Login

CptnHarlock writes "Today the registered users of Answers.com received an email informing them that the site has ended support for Yahoo, Twitter, Google, or LinkedIn as a way to sign into their site. Facebook is the sole external way left to log in. A local login and password were generated and sent by email and the old (non-Facebook) logins deactivated. Score another one for Facebook.com in the login consolidation wars."

Comments

Reeeaaal smart

[GameboyRMH]

The only reason I can imagine sites are doing this is very short-term thinking. When you make Facebook your only way to log in, you make yourself dependent on Facebook, which let's not forget, could fall out of favor just as quickly as Myspace, or Geocities before that.

It's a precedent that other sites should be afraid to set at all. They should be avoiding centralized login services like the plague. The current system is the best, where the only point of centralization is an email address, because email is 100% free and open (for now, although port 25 blocking and spam blocklist maintainers are threatening that)

Re:Reeeaaal smart

[Kenja]

No, the reason is money. Facebook gives them cash, they do stupid things in exchange. Facebook then hopes to get more information to sell, I mean more users.

Re:Reeeaaal smart

[rwven]

Except having worked with things like this, i know that facebook does no such thing. Facebook gives you nothing at all in return for using their services. The upside is that your content gets out, and shared on facebook....which drives users to your site. I'm sure facebook mines that data for all kinds of fun things though.

-RV

Re:Reeeaaal smart

[Amouth]

To be fair Geocities was on the same scale as facebook at one point (for people who did use the net not in general society). And they could have stayed around a lot longer but they died due to how they handled their community. if Facebook started charging $ per post and a monthly login fee i'm sure it would die extremely quickly.

yes Geocities did have some ad revenue - but companies where not paying for web marketing at the time and the potential funds to tap into for that was much smaller relative to userbase than it is now for facebook.

Re:Reeeaaal smart

[cayenne8]

Well...hoping this isn't a trend for too many sites...as that I don't have now, nor do I ever intend to have a FB account.

That being said, as long as they have their own login too, that's cool....I'd just use that.

But, if I site goes FB logon only, that'll be the end of my use of it. I'd have a hard time thinking any site would limit themselves to only FB members....while FB does indeed have a huge membership, they aren't 100%....and as a business owner, I'd not like to risk losing anyone as a potential customer.

Re:Reeeaaal smart

[JazzHarper]

Answers.com did NOT make Facebook the only way to log in. They are eliminating support for three centralized login services, which should make you happy. They probably kept Facebook because too many people would have complained. However, the only thing you need to maintain an account on Answers.com is an e-mail address, which should also make you happy.

Re:Reeeaaal smart

[justforgetme]

No, the reason is money. Facebook gives them cash, they do stupid things in exchange. Facebook then hopes to get more information to sell, I mean more users.

No, it's not. The reason is conversion rate. (Full stop)

The only reason there is for a site owner to implement facebook login is a high conversion rate from guests to logged in users.
The user just does one click and milliseconds later has given up all his personal data to the site he just autoregistered for.

by doing conventional logins small portal admins get around 80% less registrations and the quality of the data they get of the users is much lower.
Facebook login is tailored for identity retrieval which benefits mostly facebook but also the busynesses that implement it. The only one who doesn't get something in return is You.

facebook login is a very bad thing, don't use it (as a user).

Re:Reeeaaal smart

[icebraining]

OpenID > email. It's 100% free and open too, and it doesn't force you to have a different password for every site - you can even login with a personal certificate on your OpenID provider.

Re:Reeeaaal smart

[SuricouRaven]

But it's one hell of a password to have guessed, intercepted or lost.

Re:Reeeaaal smart

[Amouth]

market % yes and scale yes..

if you look at the number of users vs the possible pool + the tech available then and now and the size of the companies.. yea they where the same scale then as face book is now..

Re:Reeeaaal smart

[viracochas]

I expect to see Slashdot announcing Facebook-only login next April 1st.

Oh noes!

[Anonymous Coward]

A crappy scraper site that republishes Wikipedia's content will no longer allow me to use an account I don't have from a provider I don't use!

Re:Oh noes!

[GameboyRMH]

Haha true XD

Someone sent me a survey they were doing as part of a school project recently, on social networks. I couldn't fill it out because I don't use any social networks at all. Basically the minimum level of social network activity that the survey assumed was possible was occasional Facebook use. It gave you the option to say that you didn't use G+, Twitter, etc at all, but it was assumed that you at least occasionally used Facebook.

It's a content farm

[Animats]

Answers.com is an ad-heavy content farm. Why would anyone want a login there?

Re:It's a content farm

[adisakp]

On a netbook, tablet or phone, about 70% of the initial home page view is ads -- and not unbotrusive ones (those make up the bottom 50% of the page when you scroll down with web link ads). Plus the way the panes work and the clutter is very remiscent of sites from 5 years ago. This is not a site that is friendly for fast consumer browsing on portable devices. Basically any site this cluttered is gonna be dying and starving for cash as the PostPC-browser age comes into full swing.

another one on the list

[iceaxe]

OK, so answers.com goes on the list of sites I will continue to not use.

Facebook the only EXTERNAL method to register

[LordNicholas]

Let's not overhype what's occurring here. FTA: "You now have two ways you can sign in and stay with us and keep your contributions and earned badges." They're only dropping support for other single sign on type logins, probably all of which had been provided by a 3rd party like Gigya. Standard old-fashioned site registration/login is still supported. I work for a major TV network website; we have single sign on via Facebook and also offer signup via the rogue's gallery of Twitter, LinkedIn, mySpace, etc in addition to a standard old-fashioned signup. Literally 99% of our signups come from either Facebook or standard registration. We'll probably drop support for the others as well, as they're not worth the dev resources or the fee we pay to Gigya.

well one site I will not be going to

[rorywilliams]

I deleted my facebook and will not re-create it, so I guess these sites are off limits to me forever. Seems like a good business model

Re:Misleading summary

[LordNicholas]

I'm disappointed that seemingly most Slashdotters couldn't even be bothered to read the article HEADLINE, let alone the summary or, god forbid, the article itself.

Re:Misleading summary

[JazzHarper]

They read it--they just didn't understand it.