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if signups are your metric, then I would guess you'd see an increase. however, as others have mentioned on HN, by reducing friction you increase the amount of

if signups are your metric, then I would guess you'd see an increase. however, as others have mentioned on HN, by reducing friction you increase the amount of "tyre-kickers" - people who just want to check things out and leave. that's not such a bad thing if your cost-per-user is negligible, or you have some kind of post-signup campaign in place (e.g. an email after inactivity that tries to "reactivate" the user). in those situations, the more people you can expose your company to, the better. I'd wager that many startups don't implement Facebook signin because of the engineering overhead that could be spent on sexy new features.

Charuru 16y ago
Do you have any basis? I mean we all know the theory why it might, but I'm not convinced?
- fookyong 16y ago
  wellll ok, the real answer is: It depends on your execution. In general, reducing friction will increase signups. That's hard to argue against. The only situation where reducing friction will reduce signups is where you seemingly reduce perceived value by doing it, but again, that all depends on execution. Facebook connect sign in could be executed in a couple of ways: 1) Click a Facebook button. Click approve. Boom, you're registered in your app. 2) Click a Facebook button. Click approve. Get redirected to another signup form and have to fill in more data. Click "Send". Oops, there was an error with your form input, please enter a valid email address. Fill in data. Click "Send". I can say with confidence that (1) will increase signups, but (2) will hardly move the needle. It depends on your execution.
- Reedge 16y ago
  We tested this with http://www.reedge.com http://www.reedge.com for a client that integrated the facebook login on the checkout page of a Magento shop. I remember that Around 8% more finished the checkout compared to when we did not show the facebook login option. The problem was we did not test the actual login, just having the option. The client did not give us details on revenue/turnover or hoe many people actually used login of facebook. It was a health product on the US market.
ebun 16y ago
"I'd wager that many startups don't implement Facebook signin because of the engineering overhead that could be spent on sexy new features." How much time is really spent integrating FB Connect?
- fookyong 16y ago
  The fact that it requires learning a new API makes it a non-trivial feature, engineering-wise IMO.
  - ebun 16y ago
    I wouldn't have deemed it trivial, but the part I quoted made it sound like the associated workload was pretty heavy. I haven't looked into the API or what it takes to integrate it, but I assumed (bad habit, I know) it wouldn't necessarily be rocket science. Aren't most API's relatively simple to use compared to the actually building of an app? Plus, if it causes a huge increase in users and tire-kickers, it seems an app would get more chances to show off their sexy features anyway.
    - msencenb 16y ago
      After looking at the docs it doesn't appear to be incredibly hard. I think the most non-trivial thing would be integrating with the current site sign-on. Issues such as an existing users that decide to sign on with facebook (which is linked to a different e-mail address) could become a problem on the backend.

Charuru 16y ago

Do you have any basis? I mean we all know the theory why it might, but I'm not convinced?

fookyong 16y ago
wellll ok, the real answer is: It depends on your execution. In general, reducing friction will increase signups. That's hard to argue against. The only situation where reducing friction will reduce signups is where you seemingly reduce perceived value by doing it, but again, that all depends on execution. Facebook connect sign in could be executed in a couple of ways: 1) Click a Facebook button. Click approve. Boom, you're registered in your app. 2) Click a Facebook button. Click approve. Get redirected to another signup form and have to fill in more data. Click "Send". Oops, there was an error with your form input, please enter a valid email address. Fill in data. Click "Send". I can say with confidence that (1) will increase signups, but (2) will hardly move the needle. It depends on your execution.
Reedge 16y ago
We tested this with http://www.reedge.com http://www.reedge.com for a client that integrated the facebook login on the checkout page of a Magento shop. I remember that Around 8% more finished the checkout compared to when we did not show the facebook login option. The problem was we did not test the actual login, just having the option. The client did not give us details on revenue/turnover or hoe many people actually used login of facebook. It was a health product on the US market.

ebun 16y ago

"I'd wager that many startups don't implement Facebook signin because of the engineering overhead that could be spent on sexy new features." How much time is really spent integrating FB Connect?

fookyong 16y ago
The fact that it requires learning a new API makes it a non-trivial feature, engineering-wise IMO.
- ebun 16y ago
  I wouldn't have deemed it trivial, but the part I quoted made it sound like the associated workload was pretty heavy. I haven't looked into the API or what it takes to integrate it, but I assumed (bad habit, I know) it wouldn't necessarily be rocket science. Aren't most API's relatively simple to use compared to the actually building of an app? Plus, if it causes a huge increase in users and tire-kickers, it seems an app would get more chances to show off their sexy features anyway.
  - msencenb 16y ago
    After looking at the docs it doesn't appear to be incredibly hard. I think the most non-trivial thing would be integrating with the current site sign-on. Issues such as an existing users that decide to sign on with facebook (which is linked to a different e-mail address) could become a problem on the backend.