Friend Connect goes îñţérñåţîöñåļ

So to kick off our first product launch announcement on this blog, what better way to do it than to add support for 47 more languages to one of our developer products. Here goes...

Hanging out online is just more fun with other people. Comments, social networks, opinion polls - it seems like everyone is looking for ways to better connect with fellow web-surfers.

It's not a huge surprise, then, that many site owners are looking for ways to "socialise" their sites. Enter Google Friend Connect, a free and easy service from Google that helps you awaken and strengthen your community without a comprehensive knowledge of code (developers seeking deeper integration can also use the Friend Connect APIs). You need only to copy and paste a few snippets of code to enrich your site with social features such a members gadget that lets visitors join your site and a comments gadget to facilitate dialog.

Millions of websites are already using Friend Connect - but we know that some of you site owners have held off because it wasn't available in your language. Well, that's about to change! Starting today, Friend Connect is supported in 47 additional languages, including French, Italian, German, Spanish, Greek, and Dutch (see the full list of languages on our Social Web Blog).

To learn more about Friend Connect, take a look at the video below:

With today's launch, site owners can now access the Friend Connect console in any one of 48 languages. When you add Friend Connect to a new site, it will default to your primary language. But if your site is in another language, simply set it on the site settings tab and Friend Connect will automatically render the gadgets in that language. And if you have multiple sites in different languages, you can select a different language for each of your sites.

Most Google-created gadgets, including the popular members, comments, and recommendation gadgets, are now available in all these languages. To see a list of Friend Connect gadgets available in your language, visit the gadget gallery.

Go to google.com/friendconnect to get started. And if you're developing gadgets, make sure to review the documentation on localizing OpenSocial applications.

Posted by Kasia Chmielinski, Google UK