Facebook® Application Development For Dummies®

Cinch

Cinch (www.cinchcast.com), owned by BlogTalk Radio, is a site devoted to allowing people to very simply share sound bites of information with their friends. Think of it as Twitter for audio. With Cinch, simplicity is key.

With Cinch, it starts with the premise that with a simple phone call and no account, you can start using the site to post audio. Then, when you associate your phone number with the site, your audio is automatically linked with the site.

When I worked with Cinch, it wanted to take this simple concept further into Facebook and Twitter. We took the basic, similar premise and made it so that with a simple click on the Facebook or Twitter Login button, you could immediately register for the site and start posting audio updates.

Cinch also created an iPhone app that integrates with Facebook (see Figure 17-7), and using your Facebook login there, you can also log in or register for the site, as well as publish back to Facebook when you post your audio update.

Cinch uses numerous integration points:

• Single sign-on and registration: As I mention earlier, it takes one click and you're in. Cinch then asks you for additional information along the way, but immediately you can get started posting updates to the site. This minimizes the barrier to entry and makes it much easier for users to get started and try out the site.
• Access to friends: Cinch also uses your Facebook friend list to find other Cinch users who are in your friend list. Cinch can then organize a news ...