Google, Facebook, and Plaxo Join DataPortability
In would many see as a surprise for Facebook, they will join Google and Plaxo in the DataPortability Workgroup.
What is it? According to the official announcement, “Users will be able to access their friends and media across all the applications, social networking sites and widgets that implement the design into their systems.”
This comes on the heels of what has been dubbed “Scoblegate,” where Robert Scoble was briefly booted from Facebook for running a script that collected Facebook user info for an app being develoed by Plaxo. Scoble got his account reactivated and it’s not yet known if Plaxo will go ahead with the app, which like the Fuser app for MySpace, would collect Facebook friends’ ID’s and email address so one wouldn’t need to login to Facebook’s platform to read and respond to messages.
Facebook has taken a lot of flack recently for a variety of reasons, ranging from the poorly handled Beacon to its seeming lack of openness. Joining DataPortability appears to be a move in the other direction, but questions still remain. As of now, all that’s really going on is a “conversation,” so nothing concrete has been put into practice, and Facebook has committed to nothing other than being part of the discussion.
One also needs to ask if Facebook would not be losing tons of valuation if they freely sacrifice their users’ info. It’s a tough call for them, not only relating to the internet marketing possibilities of owning that info, but the privacy concerns that arise from sharing it. Part of the reason Scoble’s script generated such consternation was the idea that Facebook email addresses and user info could be plucked and subsequently abused.
Technorati Tags: facebook, google, plaxo, robert scoble, dataportability
