Facebook prepares to unleash Connect

Facebook is working with a number of sites to debut Connect components

Social networking giant Facebook is about to launch its Connect platform, according to reports in The New York Times.

Facebook is working with sites such as Digg, the Discovery Channel and Hulu to debut Connect components which will allow users to share their browsing and viewing activities with others on their Facebook news feeds.

The company hopes that the new system will allow users to expand Facebook's reach outside its own site boundaries, making the user's profile a richer and more powerful element.

Facebook is also looking to Connect to polish up its image in terms of information sharing.

First unveiled at the company's developer conference in July, Connect is seen by many as the successor to Beacon, the disastrous advertising platform launched and pulled in late 2007 amid privacy and information disclosure concerns from users.