Google and Facebook simultaneously launched Google Friend Connect, and Facebook Connect. Thursday morning, Google announced that beta testing of Friend Connect is complete, and that webmasters that wish to add social features can now link to Google, Yahoo, AOL, and OpenID services through Friend Connect. Then, a matter of hours later, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook Connect is ready for action.

Through this action, Google wanted its users to add social networking features like chat, games and ratings by simply copying and pasting a few lines of code.

That means that instead of having to create an account on a Friend Connect-powered Web site, they can use their Google ID instead of yet another extra login and password. Friend Connect is linked to OpenSocial, the Google-led set of common APIs for building social applications across multiple Web sites.

Moreover since the connectivity subject was opened, Google also detailed extension plans for its Chrome browsers. Among the most requested features for the open-source browser is plug-in customization, and hopefully an ad-blocking extension would be allowed.

"The goal is to facilitate an open social web," said Google product manager Mussie Shore in the blog post. "Using open standards like OpenID and OAuth, Friend Connect makes it simple for people to instantly interact with one another on the sites that they already love to visit. Additionally, web sites that use Friend Connect become OpenSocial containers capable of running applications created by the OpenSocial developer community."

As far as Facebook Connect is concerned, it was announced last spring, but wasn't officially rolled out until Thursday. It lets members connect their Facebook identity across the Web, including profile photos, names, photos, friends, groups, events, and other information.

In other words web sites such as Hulu.com, Citysearch, Digg and others that partner with Facebook offer Web surfers the ability to log onto their site with existing Facebook information and share interesting tidbits with friends through their news feed. And these partner sites seem to be excited to join Facebook Connect themselves because it will bring them enhanced visibility and increased page views, resulting in more money.

"Obviously our launch partners don't cover all the Web sites you use on a daily basis," Zuckerberg said, "So if you want to see this list grow, get in touch with your favorite Web sites, developers, and services, and tell them you want to connect. With your help, we can all share more information across the web."

However Google's service is more open, relying on the open-source OpenID identity management system, which is also supported by Yahoo, AOL, and Microsoft. Also, when web developers enable their sites for Google Friend Connect, the sites will be able to take advantage of OpenSocial web gadgets, such as message boards and rating and reviewing gadgets.

Nevertheless the two systems do different things so they're not in direct rivalry with each other. Facebook Connect allows you to link things to your social network on Facebook , while Google Friend Connect lets any web site add a social networking element.