Somewhat off-topic, but I'd like an explanation for why startups are requiring facebook in order to sign up for a service? I'd love to try turntable.fm (as well as rolling.fm, and mixapp.com), but I'm not on facebook nor do I ever plan to be.
Is there some advantage to doing this that I'm not seeing? I understand the appeal of a limited beta and exclusivity, but I would think it would be to their advantage to offer multiple ways to sign up.
1) Its some extra work for what is likely a tiny portion of their target user demographic (note: this isn't the demographic that would use a normal signup if it was an option as supposed to facebook connect, just the ones that won't use it at all if it isn't)
2) They get nice benefits of forcing people to use facebook auth, eg friend lists within the app. Turntable knows all of my friends who use the service, and can show me rooms that they are using. If there was an alternate non-facebook signon that I had used instead, this wouldn't work out
3) The signup is probably more frictionless for users, many of whom are fickle and might not sign up if it seems like a lot of work. I say probably because I don't have experience with tracking conversion rates or anything here-this is just a guess
Many people don't want to give out another e-mail or another password to yet another site. Given the Gawker and other leaked account debacles, many people use the same login/authentication across web services. By using my Facebook login, I put more trust in Facebook securing my credentials vs. a startup I barely know anything about. Plus, it saves me tons of time.
Is there some advantage to doing this that I'm not seeing? I understand the appeal of a limited beta and exclusivity, but I would think it would be to their advantage to offer multiple ways to sign up.