A Facebook software problem on Thursday temporarily sidelined websites synched to a feature that lets people's identities at the leading social network follow them around the Internet.

A Facebook Connect software glitch caused social network members trying to visit any of a wide array of websites including NBC News, CNN and The Washington Post to be routed to an error page.

Connect lets outside websites synch with the social network so people can do things such as post "Likes" or comments back to friends, or log in using their Facebook identities.

The problem reportedly affected people logged in at Facebook who tried to visit websites synched to the Connect feature."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 California-based social network said in an email statement.

"The issue was quickly resolved, and Login with Facebook is now working as usual.Facebook did not indicate how long the glitch lasted, but websites claiming to have been vexed by the problem reported that it lasted from less than 15 minutes to nearly an hour.