TC says that Twitter will soon launch a new Facebook Connect like system to let other websites authenticate users.
The new Twitter product will allow sites to authenticate users, pull data and then publish back to Twitter, we’ve heard. All of these features exist today via the Twitter API, but the slick Facebook Connect-like packaging and easy-to-use widgets don’t exist yet.
Twitter is also taking an open, standards based approach. They use OAuth, for example, for authentication and data sharing. Facebook uses proprietary protocols for Facebook Connect. In a nutshell, this is their response to the massively popular Facebook Connect. link.