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Facebook Friends to Google+ made easy with Chrome extension


We'll see how Facebook responds to this, but a developer has created a Chrome browser extension that helps Facebook users extract contact information that their Facebook contacts have shared in such a way that they can then import that information into Google+. It's hardly the sort of extension that Facebook would be all that happy with.

In addition, it violates Section 3.2 of Facebook's terms of service, which states,
"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."It's long been a point of contention between Google and Facebook, the ability to extract contact information from Facebook. The Chrome extension is called "Facebook Friend Exporter," and its available free in the Chrome Web Store. Since the extension violates Facebook's ToS, it's possible that those using it could in fact be banned.
That possibility was addressed in a Google+ conversation by developer Mohamed Mansour, who said,
"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 a ban/expulsion/termination, so be it :) I already got my Friends out of Facebook into Google+ (some of them, need to invite more!) ... From the 30K+ users who used it, no one got a ban notice from Facebook, but I don't guarantee that :)"
Mansour's Chrome extension copies the information your contacts have shared with you already on Facebook (name, email address, phone number, birthday, Web site, address, whatever) then allows you to either save it as a spreadsheet or import it directly into your Gmail address book.

That's only half the problem, however. You still have to organize them into groups, or Circles, once you have them imported. Also, until Google goes live for all with Google+, there may be a dearth of your friends available.

One more thing: while the demand for Google+ invites is clearly huge, it's unclear if it will have staying power. It's something new, and novel, and of course that will garner interest. How many Facebook users will feel the need to join a new social networking service for the long haul remains to be seen.

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