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I think what they should have done is add functionality into Chrome that would allow and encourage you to automatically import all the data in your Facebook acc
by devit 7y ago
I think what they should have done is add functionality into Chrome that would allow and encourage you to automatically import all the data in your Facebook account into Google+ and then post to both accounts.
At the time, Google had much more goodwill than today and there's a chance people would have used it just so they could use Google instead of Facebook.
- unreal37 7y agoTrying to use your dominance in one space (search, or browsers, say) to actively steal data from a competitor (scrape Facebook!) with the intention to destroy that competitor is something lawyers have wet dreams about. I mean, Facebook would have destroyed them in court.
- kragen 7y agoIt's a real problem that Facebook users don't have a way to download their own Facebook data.
- devit 7y agoI think it would have been important enough for Google to be worth fighting no matter the cost, since it would have been the only viable way of replacing Facebook. The user would be consenting, initiating and running the procedure on his own machine, so there's a plausible argument that it's fine. Regarding the antitrust argument, you could also argue that Facebook is a monopoly in social networks and that preventing such a data transfer is anticompetitive.