The new music social network from Apple, dubbed Ping, is just another feature where we have to convince our friends to add us once and for all, lest they be left out of the technological playground with all of the other uncool kids. Of course, it's still a pain to round up all of your friends (some of whom don't even want to put a hand on iTunes) and have them "follow" you on the Ping network. So, then, why couldn't Apple just make it easier on all of us and have some sort of Facebook integration? In this day and age, if you want to share something with 500 of your closest friends, all you have to do is click the "Share on Facebook" button to broadcast the information.

Kara Swisher, of All Things D, managed to ask Steve Jobs why Facebook Connect was omitted from Ping as he was making his rounds through the media demo room after the Apple Music Event. The answer was that Apple had held talks with Facebook about "a variety of unspecified partnerships related to Ping, but the discussions went nowhere," according to Swisher's blog.

The reason the deal fell through, says Jobs, is because Facebook wanted "onerous terms that we could not agree to." Jobs did not elaborate further, but added that Apple could technically incorporate Facebook Connect. Whether they want to is another story entirely.

And when asked how one would actually go about finding friends on Ping, Jobs simply offered that users could "…type their names into search or send them emails inviting them to join." Kind of reminds you of the first days of social networking, doesn't it?


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