Google, Twitter, Facebook, WordPress: The Interwebs of Cross Publishing

If you've ever wanted all your information in one place, your lucky days are upon you. The stars have begun to align and Santa is delivering some early Christmas gifts, including Google's FeedBurner RSS feed that automatically publishes to Twitter, WordPress blogs that can be posted to and read from Twitter apps, and a new Facebook URL shortener.

Well, it’s pretty clear that Google, Twitter and Facebook are on a mission to make information accessible once it’s published from a single source. In theory, it’s kind of cool. In practice, it’s really cool (and maybe a little creepy).

How Does it Work?

Google FeedBurner RSS

Within FeedBurner, users can link to their Twitter accounts and select which items to show from their feeds. Users can also customize which feed items are sent to Twitter. Once set up, the next time users post a new item, it will show up in Twitter.

The Twitter/FeedBurner integration uses secure OAuth authorization, thus, passwords don't have to be disclosed. It will check the links coming through that shortened URL for malware and bad sites. At this point, only FeedBurner and Google Toolbar can use goo.gl URL shortener.

WordPress/Twitter Integration

WordPress has enabled posting to and reading of WordPress.com blogs via the Twitter API. Users can write a status update and post to a WordPress.com blog, have it displayed in the blog reading view and change what blog the posts go to. If geotagging has been enabled, the geolocation data gets exposed as well.

Facebook URL Shortener

According to Inside Facebook, “Facebook is rolling out what appears to be its own URL shortening service, called fb.me.” A URL shortener will help Facebook connect to other web sites and Internet-connected devices. Recently, they began shortening URLs on a mobile interface.

Fb.me will also work as a substitute for any other Facebook page. Typing http://fb.me/starbucks instead of http://www.facebook.com/starbucks, may save bloggers time, but it also may extend their reach. Brands with Facebook fan pages will be able to share links to Facebook on Twitter more easily.

With Facebook URL Shortener, links are more manageable and easier to promote.

What's Next?

As cool and convenient as these tools seem to be, the real focus will be on how Google, Twitter, WordPress and Facebook work together. Common standards for reading and writing content updates, and how those updates will be delivered in real time will have to be agreed upon, eventually. If these players are able to come together, the possibilities for integrations are endless.