Facebook Connect, the sign-on tool Facebook uses to enable its accounts to serve as logins to other online services, suffered a brief glitch that prevented users from accessing several popular websites. Users were shown an error message due to the glitch. Facebook has now fixed the problem.
According to reports, the error was first spotted Thursday evening and lasted for about 40 minutes, with users taking the Facebook Connect disruption on Twitter. It was reported that users could load the desired the website but soon it directed them to a Facebook page that showed a message: ‘An error occurred. Please try again later.’
Facebook was quick to acknowledge the glitch. “For a short period of time, there was a bug that redirected people logging in with Facebook from third party sites to Facebook.com. The issue was quickly resolved, and Login with Facebook is now working as usual,” The Next Web quotes the company’s statement.
Though the problem lasted for very small time, the panic showed how Facebook Connect is extensively used across the web and could bring the Internet to a standstill. Twitter was trending with hashtags like “Facebookmageddon” and “Facebocalypse”. Here are some funny Twitter reactions, courtesy LA Times: