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Facebook Finds A New Way To Liberate Your Gmail Contact Data

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Re: Facebook Finds A New Way To Liberate Your Gmail Contact Data

#41
post #35

Google could easily fix this w/o impacting other services: block Facebook's referrer. And then present them with an opt-in page for Google.me... BOOM! Instant win? High five.

Google could also block any facebook links from appearing as google search results if things become more tenuous. I highly doubt this would ever happen since they might face a heavy duty backlashing, but the thought is intriguing.

Facebook is not really optimized for SEO (walled-garden), so this would not be the strategic crowbar to their kneecap.

IMHO, the better solution would be to blacklist all associated Facebook IP addresses and domain names from the Android OS.

Re: Facebook Finds A New Way To Liberate Your Gmail Contact Data

#42
Google added private API to Android to make contact data imported through Facebook sync adapter in-accessible/invisible to other applications!

Maybe Google should respond by removing that restriction.

This API was implemented specially for Facebook and only used by them.

Re: Facebook Finds A New Way To Liberate Your Gmail Contact Data

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know, I'd settle for $1/user/year, if I had 500 million users.

This is a good point. A search engine like duckduckgo can choose to make much less by not tracking so much user data...and its still "enough". There are other vectors to bootstrap a friends/family sharing system that values privacy. Such a system can make a lot less than FB and still be "enough".

How much do you think DDG makes?

Re: Facebook Finds A New Way To Liberate Your Gmail Contact Data

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know, I'd settle for $1/user/year, if I had 500 million users.

This is a good point. A search engine like duckduckgo can choose to make much less by not tracking so much user data...and its still "enough". There are other vectors to bootstrap a friends/family sharing system that values privacy. Such a system can make a lot less than FB and still be "enough".

That would depend on how the costs of running servers scale with the number of users. If they scale faster, duck duck go would need to increase its income somehow.

Re: Facebook Finds A New Way To Liberate Your Gmail Contact Data

#45
post #3

or "facebook won't let you liberate your facebook data to alternate providers". i don't understand why people tolerate facebook. they don't seem deserving of the trust people give them. first opt-in/opt-out privacy issues, now this... plus it doesn't seem like they're really trying to make money yet. i suppose this is what the initial "exclusivity" of the facebook brand got them: loyalty without needing trust.

People tollerate them because they won they social space. The winners always get free passes on things that only matter to a few people. Most people dont think about getting their data out. Where would they put it?

s/won/are currently winning/

Re: Facebook Finds A New Way To Liberate Your Gmail Contact Data

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your photos are easily accessible using the Graph API[1]. I wrote a python script which downloads all your photos and saves them to your computer[2]. However, I agree that Facebook doesn't make it easy for other web services to access stored data. [1]: http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/api/photo [2]: https://github.com/derferman/scrapebook

genuine question (this sounds a little smarmy but I know nothing about Graph API or web dev at all really): How is it not easy for other web services to access this stored data when a random guy can easily throw a script on GitHub to do it?

The script has to prompt you for access to your facebook data.

Re: Facebook Finds A New Way To Liberate Your Gmail Contact Data

#47
post #3

or "facebook won't let you liberate your facebook data to alternate providers". i don't understand why people tolerate facebook. they don't seem deserving of the trust people give them. first opt-in/opt-out privacy issues, now this... plus it doesn't seem like they're really trying to make money yet. i suppose this is what the initial "exclusivity" of the facebook brand got them: loyalty without needing trust.

People tollerate them because they won they social space. The winners always get free passes on things that only matter to a few people. Most people dont think about getting their data out. Where would they put it?

I'm starting to understand why my Linux and Android-using friends abhor my Apple preference. I'm still willing to make excuses for the one I like, however.

Re: Facebook Finds A New Way To Liberate Your Gmail Contact Data

#48
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google could also block any facebook links from appearing as google search results if things become more tenuous. I highly doubt this would ever happen since they might face a heavy duty backlashing, but the thought is intriguing.

Facebook is not really optimized for SEO (walled-garden), so this would not be the strategic crowbar to their kneecap. IMHO, the better solution would be to blacklist all associated Facebook IP addresses and domain names from the Android OS.

Blacklist all Facebook IPs on Android? Haha, that's some heavy warfare you're talking about and I don't think the users will like that either.

Re: Facebook Finds A New Way To Liberate Your Gmail Contact Data

#49
post #3

or "facebook won't let you liberate your facebook data to alternate providers". i don't understand why people tolerate facebook. they don't seem deserving of the trust people give them. first opt-in/opt-out privacy issues, now this... plus it doesn't seem like they're really trying to make money yet. i suppose this is what the initial "exclusivity" of the facebook brand got them: loyalty without needing trust.

Unfortunately for many of my close friends Facebook is "the Internet" (similar to AOL a decade ago). They refuse to use email/twitter/im/blogs/etc.

Re: Facebook Finds A New Way To Liberate Your Gmail Contact Data

#50
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google could also block any facebook links from appearing as google search results if things become more tenuous. I highly doubt this would ever happen since they might face a heavy duty backlashing, but the thought is intriguing.

Facebook is not really optimized for SEO (walled-garden), so this would not be the strategic crowbar to their kneecap. IMHO, the better solution would be to blacklist all associated Facebook IP addresses and domain names from the Android OS.

Either one would cross the line very quickly into anticompetitive behavior.
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