Today Google posted an article about the new implementation process for Friend Connect, the company’s identity service which competes directly with Facebook Connect. In a blog post today, the company wrote, “We’ve heard from a number of you that uploading files to activate your website is not always easy. So starting today, you no longer have to worry about downloading or uploading files.” Instead, you can go download any one of a number of widgets that the company now provides. The only thing you need to be able to do is edit HTML.

Earlier this week Facebook released their “Connect Wizard” which essentially walks users through the process of implementing Facebook Connect. While installing Facebook Connect on your site requires uploading a file, the company recently released a service which doesn’t require any upload: the “Fan Box widget“, which instantly turns visitors into Facebook Page fans. Not only do users get a community on their site but they also get a full featured community platform: Facebook Pages.

We all know that Google has a fair amount of Facebook envy given that the majority of Facebook content is blocked from search engines. With 300 million users (and growing quickly), that means there is a substantial amount of content not available to Google. I’ve previously argued that all the information going into Facebook will be used to generate a better search engine.

Twitter appears to be the primary competitor in the real-time search race though. That must be why Google is taking as many opportunities as possible to try and stick it to Facebook. Saying that Google Friend Connect is a formidable competitor to Facebook Connect would be an understatement. Friend Connect is now installed on over 5 million websites, whereas Facebook only has “tens of thousands”. However when was the last time you heard a major announcement about a company launching support for “Friend Connect”?

If Google is going to launch a full court press against Facebook Connect they’ll have to battle Facebook in the place where it matters: the press. Google has a massive communications department which should be up for a battle with Facebook, however no large brands that we know of yet have implemented Google Friend Connect. That requires more than just a communications department. Is that the next step for Google Friend Connect?

For now, Facebook is still winning the hearts and minds of the masses when it comes to the identity race. The company also has the best mapping of the worldwide social graph, something Google still hasn’t accomplished. It will be interesting to see how this battle pans out. Do you think Google Friend Connect still has a shot at winning the identity wars?

Want to get Facebook Connect set up within your site quickly but not sure how to? You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to get this working! Today the company introduced the Facebook Connect wizard which walks users through the process of getting Connect set up. The service helps users get Connect set up in 3 quick steps. The only requirement is that users know how to upload files to their website. There’s a good chance that if you’re reading this blog, you know how to upload files to your website!

The company is also releasing the Facebook Connect playground which lets website owners test out various Facebook Connect code. The main purpose is to make it as easy as possible to implement Facebook Connect. So far the easiest feature I’ve seen is the Fan Box widget which doesn’t even require any form of advanced configuration. However if you’re looking for a more customized experience, Facebook’s new tools that were released today should make things a lot easier for you.

As the number of sites with Facebook Connect enabled expands, the company is in need of simplifying the service as much as possible to maximize their reach. This will help the company accomplish the goal of becoming a leading identity provider and the largest representation of the global social graph. If Facebook Connect is enabled across the web, the company will be able to collect more information about users and each Facebook user’s experience will be improved on other sites for being a Facebook member.

Have you implemented Facebook Connect? Do you think these new services will make it much easier to implement Connect?

TVGuide.com is using Facebook Connect to allow users to share their favorite television shows and check out what their friends are watching. Perhaps most striking is the ability to log in with a couple clicks and see which shows all of your friends on Facebook like — it’s a quick way for people to get a lot more value out of the site’s TV show listings.

The Connect application also allows Facebook users to add favorite TV shows to their TVGuide.com accounts. Crucially, it automatically pulls in people’s favorite shows from their Facebook profiles. This way, your friends don’t even need to be using TV Guide for you to see what shows they like. Users can keep tabs on their friends’ favorites, as well as the most popular shows among all their friends. There’s also the ability to add those shows to your favorites list and post the addition to your newsfeed.

A sidebar gives you the chance to add TV Guide as one of your favorites with some information on the Fan page’s total number of Fans. There’s also a link to news stories on the TV Guide site that have been linked through the Fan page. TV Guide’s Facebook Fan page currently has close to 11,000 fans, and it will be interesting to see if the cross promotion through Connect brings a lot more.

The past two days, we’ve seen a wide variety of companies presenting at TechCrunch50 somehow make use of Facebook — some built apps or used Pages, some accessed profile data, the news stream or photos through Connect. Here’s a quick review of what we saw, in chronological order, including links to other sites that have covered the companies in more detail.

SealTale: This doesn’t seem like a new idea. SealTale lets you place an endorsement widget on a web page, including a simple frame on Facebook. More on CNET.

Udorse: An endorsement site where people can endorse items in their Facebook photos, potentially convincing friends to buy them as well. More on TechCrunch.

Refmob: Cross-site service where people can get paid for referring their friends to jobs; includes a way to refer Facebook friends. More on VentureBeat.

Mota Motors: Used car marketplace site that accesses Connect to let buyers and sellers include their real Facebook profile photos. More on SocalTech.

YourVersion: News discovery engine site that lets you share stories on Facebook. More on TechCrunch.

Metricly: Simple analytics service that includes a way to track fans on Facebook. More on VentureBeat.

Crowdflower: Online workforce placement service that apparently includes a Facebook app where you can earn virtual currencies in exchange (I don’t see the app). More on Caem.la.

Cododot: Event-planning and invitation service focused on women. It lets you post invitations to Facebook. More on Techgeist.

Threadsy: Social stream aggregator site that lets you read information from Facebook along with other social sites. More on CNET.

Radiusly: Imagined as a sort of Twitter-LinkedIn hybrid, the company also lets you post items to Facebook. More on VentureBeat.

[Photo via Noah Hendrix.]