Yahoo today announced it will fully intergrate with Facebook Connect in the first half of 2010.

Yahoo users will be able to log into Yahoo products -- from Flickr to Yahoo! Finance -- using their Facebook accounts. They will also be able to update and check their Facebook News feed from Yahoo.

We love this move! For years, Yahoo's tried to build services to rival the likes of Facebook and Twitter. We always wondered: Why go through that pain when it can just tap into Facebook's API and bring Facebook to Yahoo users for free?

The service Yahoo performs for its users isn't building them poor copies of all the great stuff on the Internet, but, time and again, pointing out the great stuff on the Internet. For Yahoo to survive, Yahoo.com has to consistently be the place Yahoo users find the best products and services on the Internet, whether Yahoo built them or not.

We're greedy. Next, we want Yahoo to fully integrate Twitter and then maybe work out syndication deals with Hulu and Pandora.

Here's the full release:

Continuing its commitment to be the center of people's online lives, Yahoo! Inc. today announced further integration with Facebook that unites social experiences from across the Web to provide a place for consumers to enjoy meaningful content and stay in touch with the people they care about most.

"With this integration, we are opening the door for two of the Internet's largest online communities to make it easier for people to stay connected," said Jim Stoneham, vice president of Communities for Yahoo!. "It also enables us to further the Yahoo! Open Strategy, which is aimed at making experiences dramatically more open, social and personally relevant for the more than 500 million people that visit Yahoo! each month."

Yahoo!'s Facebook Connect integration will give consumers richer experiences on Yahoo!, including in Yahoo! Mail and on properties like Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Sports, and Yahoo! Finance. It will enable them to connect with Facebook friends on Yahoo!, view a feed of their friends' related activity on Yahoo!, and share content--such as photos from Flickr or comments on news stories--with all of their friends on Facebook. The content that consumers share with Facebook friends will then create a loop that drives visitors back to Yahoo!.

This partnership extends the current Facebook integration on Yahoo! which enables Facebook users to access their stream and update their status from the Yahoo! homepage, provides "Share on Facebook" options across the Yahoo! network, and allows Facebook to access Yahoo! Contacts. People using both Yahoo! and Facebook will soon be able to share updates across both networks, creating a richer and more relevant social experience by connecting the broad range of Yahoo! content and services with their friends on Facebook.

"As one of the largest sites on the Web, Yahoo! is an ideal partner to integrate with Facebook Connect, enabling users to share meaningful content with their friends on Facebook from Yahoo's wide range of category-leading properties," said Ethan Beard, director of Facebook Developer Network.

The integration is expected to begin in the first half of 2010.