TechCrunch reports that Twitter is set to launch its answer to Facebook Connect, which lets third parties integrate Facebook features into their Web sites and services. Through Facebook Connect, users can instantly post links from outside sites to their Facebook page. TechCrunch reports that 80,000 websites have integrated Facebook Connect with 60 million Facebook users.
According to influential TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington, Twitter’s answer to Facebook Connect would “allow sites to authenticate users, pull data and then publish back to Twitter.” The current Twitter API includes the framework to do all of these functions, but Twitter has yet to package them into one program or series of widgets.
The Twitter Connect feature would go a long way to helping the company plug a leak in its business model. A report by widget provider Gigya said that people who have a choice of logging into a widget using Facebook, Twitter or Myspace will choose Facebook 65 percent of the time.