thechromesource – Google Chrome and Chrome OS News and Forum

Chrome Extension Lets You Import Your Facebook Friends Into Google +

Posted on 05. Jul, 2011 by Nicholas Greene in Chrome, News

One problem a lot of people have cited with Google’s new social network startup is the fact that most of Facebook’s users are, well…rather entrenched in the social networking website. Leaving Facebook means leaving their entire network of friends and acquaintances behind, in a sense. That’s always the problem with any social networking site- switching from one platform to another means you might often have to spend hours rebuilding your web of contacts; hunting down their information, adding their contact information to yours…either that, or you’re going to be dividing your attention between the two websites. Not exactly a tempting prospect, is it? Given how much work moving from Facebook could be, is it any wonder a lot of people might just want to stay put?

Ah, but there’s a solution- or at the very least, a small boon- for this conundrum. Switching from Facebook to Google + need not mean you fall out of touch with all your friends. An extension for Google + just recently went live to make the process of moving over from Facebook far, far smoother. Developed by a fellow known as Mohamed Mansour, this extension’s called, quite fittingly, the Facebook Friend Exporter.

The Facebook Friend Exporter

The tool’s actually pretty simple to use. Once you’ve installed it into Chrome, the first thing you’re going to want to do is log in to Facebook- making sure that you’ve got your default language set to English ( Friend Exporter isn’t available in any other language yet). Next, you’ll have to make sure you don’t have SSL enabled, and ensure you’re using HTTP. Then, disable all your Facebook extensions- there’s a few that can interfere with the extension’s operation or outright break it. Finally, once you’ve refreshed, you’ll see an “export” button on the Facebook toolbar. Click it, and you’ll be able to gain access to your friends names, emails, phone numbers, screen names, websites, addresses, and birthdays. This data can be exported in either a CSV file, or sent straight to your Gmail contacts.

Granted, if you have upwards of two hundred friends, sorting them into circles can still be a bit of a pain, but to be completely honest; it’s better than the alternative.

"I am scraping into my own data that my Facebook friends allowed me to use and view. Facebook doesn't own my friends."

The creator of the extension feels that users should have ownership of their own online data, and their own friendship. He’s made no secret of his ire towards Facebook in this regard. In a Google + conversation regarding the extension, Mansour stated simply, “I am scraping into my own data that my Facebook friends allowed me to use and view. Facebook doesn’t own my friends. I want my friends to be in a place that is easily accessible, extractable, and shareable. And if that results in a ban/termination, so be it.” Even the description of his app is demonstrative of his opinion:

Get *your* data contact out of Facebook, whether they want you to or not. You gave them your friends and allowed them to store that data, and you have right to take it back out! Facebook doesn’t own my friends

Something tells me that’s not going to sit well with Facebook. How do I know? Because of this line from the TOS: “You will not collect users’ content or information, or otherwise access Facebook, using automated means (such as harvesting bots, robots, spiders, or scrapers) without our permission.” Something tells me if you’re caught using this extension, you might just be shunted out of Facebook with an account ban. Then again, if you’re using this extension, you’re probably jumping ship anyway.

Facebook’s Data Policies

Honestly; this sort of thing just underscores one of the key differences between Google and Facebook. While Google seems to be very geared towards openness, allowing users ownership of their own data, Facebook is on the other end of the street. To be fair, Facebook’s improved their privacy policy from what it used to be. Then again, that probably has more to do with the fact that several world governments browbeat them into it, rather than any actual concern for user privacy. Just the same, at the end of the day, users don’t necessarily have one hundred percent ownership of their own data.

Although Mansour feels that the data-export policies on Facebook are, for lack of better terms, a farce; he still provides a note of caution for users, informing them that they should use the Facebook Friend Exporter at their own risk. “From the 30K+ users who used it, no one got a ban notice from Facebook, but I don’t guarantee that,” Mansour said. I’d most definitely agree with him, there. At the end of the day, however disagreeable Facebook’s data policies might be, however stilted their privacy policy is, every user on Facebook still accepted the terms when they signed up. Using the Friend Exporter counts as a breach of contract, and Facebook is legally well within rights to terminate one’s account for using this extension- even if morally, they’re in a pretty gray area.

Facebook’s yet to offer a public comment on their opinion of the tool- even though it’s already been downloaded over 15,000 times. Then again, considering that Facebook has a userbase of over seven hundred million, it might not even be on their radar right now. Maybe it’ll start getting a bit more attention once Google + releases to the general public and more users begin to migrate over. Could be that that’s what it’ll take for Facebook to take action against the extension- and possibly its creator.

As for what’s going to happen when Facebook does notice…I haven’t the foggiest. I doubt they’ll take legal action against Mansour, but who can say?

Final Thoughts

Naturally, this extension isn’t perfect. While there might eventually be an extension that allows users to copy over pictures from Facebook to Google +, the Facebook Friend exporter does not. It only nabs contact information. So any user created content that’s currently on Facebook is going to stay on Facebook- unless, that is, the folks using Facebook manually export the files themselves. Bit of a pain, but that’s going to be a problem with any social networking startup. And honestly, I don’t think we can really consider Google + to have even ‘started up’ yet- remember that it’s still in beta, and the invite process is…well, kind of backwards at the moment.

Those of you who want to nab the extension for yourself can get it here.
Via Cnet

Tags: Chrome Extensions