Call it "Clash Of The Data Titans," or, "Over My Dead Data," or, maybe, "Hoarders: The Data Edition." Whatever they call the Hollywood adaptation, the story boils down to Google and Facebook butting
heads over that most precious digital commodity: data.
Fed up with Facebook hoarding consumer data, Google is now demanding reciprocity from any service (read: Facebook) that
wishes to access its Contacts API, which helps users import their contacts' email addresses into another service.
"It's a you-show-me-yours-and-I'll-show-you-mine move that comes at a
time when the two Web behemoths are locked in battle over search, advertising, location-based services and the biggest of prizes: data collection,"
summarizes MSNBC.com's Technolog.
No doubt, the salvo "will have a
big impact on the world's biggest social network," assures TechCrunch. "Facebook doesn't [offer reciprocity], so it's going to
lose access to this key piece of the social graph."
"Depending on how you feel about Google and its vast reach and quasi-monopolistic status, this move is going to seem like: an
attempt to impose Google's vision of how the Internet should operate," or, writes GigOm, "an attempt to force
openness on companies who might otherwise want to keep your data locked down."
Google, for its part, swears it only wants sites to set their data free. "Sites that do not, such
as Facebook, leave users in a data dead end," the search giant said in a statement to TechCrunch. "So we have decided to change our approach slightly to reflect the fact that users often aren't aware
that once they have imported their contacts into sites like Facebook they are effectively trapped. "
According to ZDNet: "Google is going to take some heat, but the move does send a
message."
Indeed, while there are some simple work-arounds for any user interested in exporting their contact list from Google or Facebook, "It does pressure Facebook to change
the company's policy about not sharing Facebook contacts with other services," writes SocialBeat.
Read the whole story at Technolog »