Almost a year ago we heard quite a hype about Facebook Connect, Google Friend Connect and Gigya Socialize that are supposed to connect the Social Web with the regular website (some nice links can be found here and here).

But since than it’s been quiet on this front, and for no obvious reason. Now, you must be wondering what’s up with all those “Connect” technologies (at least I am), and the truth is pretty surprising… It’s silently creeping up everywhere!

To add some background to this post, all of those systems basically include two “killer” features:
1) Authenticating users (OpenID style, but with Social Networks). So, previous attempts at having a one “Universal identity” have failed, but Social network identity is a different story. It includes the user’s personal ID but also connected to the user’s Social Graph.
2) Virally promoting the site via newsfeed items, status updates and other tools. This is rather a new option for more publishers, with clear untapped potential.

So what about the bottom line – is it working ?

Some nice preliminary stats from CitySearch Facebook Connect implementations are quite intregin:
“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. In other words, each item shared through Facebook Connect generates 40 impressions and 28 unique visitors – a lot of traffic per shared item”.

Those are pretty amazing numbers and I think the main reason for that is that it’s truely viral and is user initiated. If I were a site publisher I would seriously consider this data. It may not have the glam and glory of a hype, but it does magic in getting exactly what sites need – increasing site interaction and traffic.