Google continues to expand its services beyond its search engine, and Michelle Megna at Internetnews.com looks at the company’s latest changes to Google Friend Connnect to see what the free upgrade offers.

Google is updating its social networking service Friend Connect to allow Web site owners personalize their content and online ads while also offering community-building tools.

Aimed at special-interest Web site publishers with little programming experience, Google Friend Connect's (GFC) new features provide ways for visitors to communicate with each other, create profiles and participate in polls.

For site owners, new tools include the ability to create customized newsletters, provide personalized content through inter-site links that match the visitor's interests and the addition of targeted AdSense advertisements.

"One of our missions at Google is to make the Web more social, and the core thing Google Friend Connect looks to solve is helping like-minded people communicate," Sami Shalabi, lead tech manager for GFC, told InternetNews.com. "You don't need any programming experience: You go to the service, answer a few questions, decide what kinds of social features you want to add, hit a button that generates some code, and you're done."