Today Google announced it has opened up its Google Friend Connect service to anyone willing to give it a shot. It joins every other Google service in having the “beta” tag, so use at your own risk, but there could be some real benefit for bloggers and even eCommerce stores.

The webmaster blog includes the announcement and a video introducing the concept. That video can be seen here:

We encourage all of our clients to get involved with social media in some way as it can lead to boat loads of traffic, and at the very least, expands the company’s reach and gets them a backlink.

What I like about Friend Connect is that it brings the social network to your site. Google includes gadgets that allow visitors to comment on or rate products/posts and “join” a site. There’s some flexibility with the styling so that it can be made to fit your site’s design. Seems like it could be a simple way to implement product reviews and comments for smaller eCommerce stores.

For blogs, Friend Connect’s ability to join a site could end up bringing bloggers more traffic through the network the friends create. I’ve added the members gadget to the sidebar of our blog, so join up if you want to give the service a try. Each joined member is clickable, and their other joined sites are listed. Additionally, friends can suggest links to other friends with ease. With enough support, the members gadget could serve as the social network version of a blogroll, where like-minded readers can share sites and links. If a reader likes your site, they could read similar blogs from your blogroll or now with Friend Connect the reader can read similar sites from your other readers’ profiles.

Some sites that have had the Friend Connect service for awhile now might demonstrate this better, with their active communities:

• Billboard for the People
• GO2WEB20 Blog
• Qloud

Users can sign in with their Google, Yahoo, AIM, or OpenID’s and begin creating their networks on participating sites today.