More than 20% of all the people in all the world have a Facebook account that they check at least once a month. That’s at least one in five people you will ever meet! A whopping 70% of those 1.65 billion users say they check their Facebook account every single day. It just makes sense, then, that developers are offering a way to log in to their apps and sites using a Facebook login. You may wonder how to log in with Facebook button when you see it, and how it benefits you.
Facebook’s Popularity
Facebook is the world’s largest social network with more than 1.65 billion members worldwide. Of that number, 1.09 million are daily Facebook users. The average time each of those users spends
Facebook offers its users a timeline (wall) to post photos, videos, and status updates as well as to share similar items found on other Facebook users’ timelines and elsewhere on the World Wide Web. Some people check the timelines of their friends and family every day.
Members can create Facebook Pages to connect people with their business or cause. Many share hobbies and special interests in Facebook Groups. Almost every website has a Facebook logo on every single page within the site so that you can easily snag that item to share on your Facebook timeline. You can then discuss it with friends in the comments on your timeline, or open up a private one-on-one chat with a friend on any topic you want.
There are hundreds if not thousands of games on Facebook. In fact, some people go there mainly to keep up with their favorite Facebook game. You can play hits like the ever-popular match-three game, Candy Crush Saga, or tend the homestead on Farmville 2. Enjoy standard board and card games like backgammon or gin rummy at Nidink Games, where euchre tournaments start at the top of every hour. Make letters into words on AlphaBetty Saga, work a puzzle at Jigsaw World, and test your cultural knowledge in Logo Quiz, 4 Pics 1 Movie, or What’s the Band. In all Facebook games, you can play with friends and find new friends among players in the game. Social gaming is a big part of the Facebook experience.
Joining Facebook and the Privacy Issue
If you don’t have a Facebook account, why not sign up today? Just go to the site on your home computer or download the app on your smartphone or tablet. Sign up is quick, and you only need to provide the information you’re comfortable sharing. Once you get used to the Facebook community, you can return to your profile and account settings to add more information to help people find you (or not).
When you get started on Facebook, the first thing you’ll want to do is customize your privacy settings. This is by far the greatest concern of new Facebook users. To access your settings, go to the top menu bar from your Home screen in Facebook. Click on the little downward-facing arrow at the far right.
This is where you can adjust the default settings to what is most comfortable for you. When first starting out with Facebook, we tend to be more conservative, putting most settings on “Friends” and a few on “Only Me.” Some people decide that is good and leave it there, while others branch out to sharing with friends of friends or even going public (eek!).
The “Friends” setting means that these elements of your Facebook Account are only visible to people on Facebook that you know and trust well enough that you have accepted their request (or sent one to them) to become “Facebook Friends.” This is a good beginner’s setting for the, “Who can see my stuff?” section.
As you get more and more Facebook Friends, you can form customized friend groups, like Family or Work, so that you can share some posts and information with one group and other posts and information with the other while not sharing anything but your most common and public thought and information with Friends not in either list.
The “Only Me” setting is a good one for the “Who can look me up?” section. That ensures that your e-mail address and telephone number remain private. You may also want to say “no” to web links.
The only section you might want to leave open to “Everyone” is, “Who can contact me?” This setting has two options: Everyone and Friends of Friends. The former means that anyone on Facebook who sees your page can send a friend request, which you can accept or decline. The latter means that only people who are already friends with someone in your friends list can do that, which may keep an old friend from reaching you.
Find Friends on Facebook
The second thing you will want to do is to search for friends. Just type the names of family members and friends from work, school, church, sports teams, and clubs into the search bar one by one and click to send them a friend request. Sometimes when you send a friend request, Facebook will show you names and profile pic of people that person has already made their friends on Facebook. If you know any of these folks, click on their photos and send more friend requests. This can make adding friends much quicker than typing names into the search bar.
Next, choose a game from the links here (above) or from your Facebook sidebar. Play a bit while you wait for all those friend requests to come back in. It won’t take long, and once they do you can click on a friend’s name to view their timeline and start to see how different people use Facebook to share, brighten, and expand their worlds, as you will do now, too.
Using Facebook All Over the Web
One reason you will want a Facebook account whether or not you expect to use it much as a social network is to be able to log in with Facebook at all the site and apps that offer that service. This is really good if you like using restaurant apps or commenting on articles at new sites because you do not have to remember all those different usernames and corresponding passwords.
In that way, the Facebook login on non-Facebook sites is a little bit like PayPal. We use PayPal to have access to our credit cards and bank accounts as payment on almost every vendor site on the Internet. It is convenient and secure to pay from those accounts without having to enter account numbers at one site after another, especially when it comes to less well-known sellers.
The same convenience comes with the Facebook login that is increasingly present all over the Web and in mobile apps. In most cases, you are not asked to provide more information to the individual site or to verify with an e-mail link. You click on the Facebook tab at the registration or login screen and then log in through Facebook on that site. Your Facebook password is not given to the site but kept safe by Facebook.
Finding and Using Facebook Login
When you come to a site that provides visitors with the safety and convenience of the Facebook login, you will see it on their site. Look for the Facebook login logo at the signup screen and click to log in with Facebook. Here are examples from an online game and a small-town pizza shop:
Sometimes the Facebook login option is there but you have to look for or reveal it. The image below shows an example. You do not see the Facebook logo, but when you click to open the login menu, Facebook is an option available to you.
When you click on the Facebook logo or button, you are logging in through Facebook for this site and will see the confirmation screen (below). This little screen tells you a lot about what happens when you choose to log in with Facebook.
- First, the screen tells you what the app is getting from your Facebook profile. In this case, Cristy’s Pizza only sees what I share with the public and my e-mail address.
- The confirmation screen also assures you that the site is not gaining permission to post to your timeline.
- If you want to be doubly sure the site is not asking for unnecessary information you can click on “Edit the info you provide,” to view the permissions taken by the site.
- After reviewing all of this, you are ready to go on with your order via the Facebook login; click “Okay.”
When you return to the site next Saturday night to order more delicious Cristy’s Pizza or subs for your group, you do not have to remember a username, email, or password. You log in with Facebook again.
Sharing Activity on Facebook
When you post comments on a site where you are logged in with Facebook, you might not want those comments to show up in your timeline. Maybe you’re one who likes to keep political views to yourself, or perhaps you do not want everyone in your life to know that you frequent UFO website and share your personal unexplained experiences in the conversations there.
By default, most sites using the Facebook login do not post the comment to your Facebook timeline. There is usually an option there that allows you to share it on your timeline if you want to do that, but the app will not post to your page without your telling it to do so.
When you make a comment that you want to share for its sheer brilliance, you often have that option right within the post. Click to check the button, as shown below, and all your Facebook friends will marvel at your quick wit.
Convenience and Security
It’s hard to beat the convenience and security that comes with using the Facebook login to sign into sites around the Web. No need to remember usernames, passwords, and e-mail addresses. No guessing over and over again, taking a chance of getting locked out of the site until you go through the password reset process. Knowing how to login with Facebook button will save you a lot of time and hassle.