Google Blocks Automated Importing of Contact Lists to Facebook
Google Inc., owner of the world’s most popular search engine, will make it more difficult for users to shift their contacts from its platform to Facebook Inc.’s site, as the companies compete for data on visitors.
Google will no longer allow Facebook to automatically import Google Contacts -- unless Facebook enables the information to be similarly exported to other sites, Google said in an e-mailed statement today. Brandee Barker, a spokeswoman for closely held Facebook, didn’t respond immediately to an e- mail message.
“It’s important that when we automate the transfer of contacts to another service, users have some certainty that the new service meets a baseline standard of data portability,” Google said in the statement. “We hope that reciprocity will be an important step towards creating a world of true data liberation.”
Google is increasingly competing with Palo Alto, California-based Facebook for visitors and advertising dollars. U.S. weekly traffic on Facebook, which has more than 500 million users, exceeded Google for the first time in March, according to research firm Experian Hitwise.
Google, based in Mountain View, California, rose 81 cents to $625.08 at 4 p.m. New York time on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The shares are little changed this year.
To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Womack in San Francisco at bwomack1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net
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