5 ms·

Friends to Gmail

50 points by sahillavingia 15y ago

chollida1 15y ago
It would really help the site if they actually had a privacy policy on their site.
- hendzen 15y ago
  All the processing is done client-side.
  - drm237 15y ago
    From a privacy standpoint, that doesn't mean anything since you're still granting the FB App permissions which, could then be used server side.
portman 15y ago
Note that this does not import your friends' EMAIL ADDRESSES. Might be just be, but I find the pitch a little bit deceptive: to me, "Friends to Gmail" implies that you can subsequently email those friends.
- qeorge 15y ago
  I had the same (incorrect) assumption. Emails would definitely be more useful. That said, via the Facebook API a user can give your app permission to access their own email, but they (thankfully) cannot give your app permission to access the emails of their friends. I'd guess that's why he wasn't able to include emails in the CSV.
  - fjabre 15y ago
    Yep. That's the walled garden bit people are pissed off about. You'd have to create a pretty nasty hack to get around it and you'd probably be shutdown anyway.
    - reemrevnivek 15y ago
      I think I recall someone using OCR for this a few years back. They were shut down, as you suspected.
- bretthellman 15y ago
  w/o email what is the benefit?
  - theli0nheart 15y ago
    I made this yesterday because someone on a mailing list I'm on wanted to view his friends birthdays on his Google Calendar and merge in some other contact info. I'm working on email addresses, but as others have noted, it's not in the API and would probably get this application banned...which wouldn't be the first time for me as many of you may know ;)
    - kzar 15y ago
      I wrote an app that puts Facebook birthdays (and events) in Google calendar a while back: http://calenderp.appspot.com http://calenderp.appspot.com (Just re-writing it now actually, few improvements here and this time I'm doing it in Clojure.)
- kacy 15y ago
  You can do this via yahoo mail. It's the only service I've seen that exports email addresses. I signed up for a fake yahoo account a few months ago. Works perfectly and exports to .csv just like this app.
prpon 15y ago
This is as minimum as an MVP can get. Why not spend some time with google api and import the email addresses directly? Here's one way to do it. http://code.google.com/apis/contacts/docs/2.0/developers_guide_protocol.html#Creating http://code.google.com/apis/contacts/docs/2.0/developers_gui... Saving the contacts as a csv file is an add-on feature.
- theli0nheart 15y ago
  Good call, I'll look into it.
shahoo 15y ago
I went to the site, but my spider sense immediately started tingling.
- mikeleeorg 15y ago
  I had the same reaction. A big recommendation would be to have the value stated up-front, alongside the big Connect to Facebook button. Like: put all of the /about/ content in a column next to that Facebook button.
  - billybob 15y ago
    A slight improvement would be if you can export to a file, which is importable via Gmail's own interface. I'd still be trusting you with my Facebook login, but I'd be keeping my Gmail login secret.
- kcbanner 15y ago
  From the description it looks like all computation happens client-side. However, you could verify this with the Webkit network tools.
vicngtor 15y ago
All this does is just scrap off whatever public data is available on your friend's profile. It COULD NOT obtain your friend's email addresses. What's the point of having your friend on gmail without their emails?
mp3jeep01 15y ago
Interesting...and similar thoughts to those below where the "Connect with Facebook" pushed me towards considering the site to be spam. Is the end goal getting information centralized? Makes me think of Greplin, except rather than import all the data to a central 'store', they allow you to search it all from a central location.
zalew 15y ago
Facebook Friend Exporter https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ficlccidpkaiepnnboobcmafnnfoomga https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ficlccidpkaiepnnbo... I've recently came across the problem of exporting friends to gmail and used this solution. There's a problem that phone numbers as well as other data will land in the description area when importing the csv, but at least I got my contacts outside of that walled garden, and it grabs the emails (if friend displays it publically). The subject app seems like it's a similar approach (js) with one difference - it needs permissions, while the bookmarklet above works 100% client-side.
keane 15y ago
If you want to import email addresses from Facebook to Gmail without using an app, try the following: 1. Create a new Yahoo email account (using a browser other than Chrome/Chromium - possible bug). Even if you have an old Yahoo email, create a new one so that the address book starts out fresh. 2. During the account creation process, click on the import contacts "Get Started" link and then choose Facebook as a source. Or visit http://address.yahoo.com/?VPC=contact_import_landing http://address.yahoo.com/?VPC=contact_import_landing and do this. 3. When the Facebook login and authorize popup appears, authorize Yahoo to receive your data. Yahoo imports the addresses. 4. Now that your friends' addresses are in Yahoo Mail, click 'Tools' in Yahoo Mail and then 'Export'. CSV format is a good format for uploading to Gmail (or your local address book). Save the file to your computer. 5. Sign in to Gmail. Click Contacts. From the 'More actions' dropdown menu, select 'Import...'. Click the 'Choose File' button. Select the Yahoo CSV you just saved and click the 'Import' button. Source: http://tcrn.ch/dgb7T3 http://tcrn.ch/dgb7T3 It's silly that Facebook allows Yahoo to access addresses and blocks Google but this roundabout method works.

Friends to Gmail

50 points by sahillavingia 15y ago

chollida1 15y ago

It would really help the site if they actually had a privacy policy on their site.

hendzen 15y ago
All the processing is done client-side.
- drm237 15y ago
  From a privacy standpoint, that doesn't mean anything since you're still granting the FB App permissions which, could then be used server side.

portman 15y ago

Note that this does not import your friends' EMAIL ADDRESSES. Might be just be, but I find the pitch a little bit deceptive: to me, "Friends to Gmail" implies that you can subsequently email those friends.

qeorge 15y ago
I had the same (incorrect) assumption. Emails would definitely be more useful. That said, via the Facebook API a user can give your app permission to access their own email, but they (thankfully) cannot give your app permission to access the emails of their friends. I'd guess that's why he wasn't able to include emails in the CSV.
- fjabre 15y ago
  Yep. That's the walled garden bit people are pissed off about. You'd have to create a pretty nasty hack to get around it and you'd probably be shutdown anyway.
  - reemrevnivek 15y ago
    I think I recall someone using OCR for this a few years back. They were shut down, as you suspected.
bretthellman 15y ago
w/o email what is the benefit?
- theli0nheart 15y ago
  I made this yesterday because someone on a mailing list I'm on wanted to view his friends birthdays on his Google Calendar and merge in some other contact info. I'm working on email addresses, but as others have noted, it's not in the API and would probably get this application banned...which wouldn't be the first time for me as many of you may know ;)
  - kzar 15y ago
    I wrote an app that puts Facebook birthdays (and events) in Google calendar a while back: http://calenderp.appspot.com http://calenderp.appspot.com (Just re-writing it now actually, few improvements here and this time I'm doing it in Clojure.)
kacy 15y ago
You can do this via yahoo mail. It's the only service I've seen that exports email addresses. I signed up for a fake yahoo account a few months ago. Works perfectly and exports to .csv just like this app.

prpon 15y ago

This is as minimum as an MVP can get. Why not spend some time with google api and import the email addresses directly? Here's one way to do it. http://code.google.com/apis/contacts/docs/2.0/developers_guide_protocol.html#Creating http://code.google.com/apis/contacts/docs/2.0/developers_gui... Saving the contacts as a csv file is an add-on feature.

theli0nheart 15y ago
Good call, I'll look into it.

shahoo 15y ago

I went to the site, but my spider sense immediately started tingling.

mikeleeorg 15y ago
I had the same reaction. A big recommendation would be to have the value stated up-front, alongside the big Connect to Facebook button. Like: put all of the /about/ content in a column next to that Facebook button.
- billybob 15y ago
  A slight improvement would be if you can export to a file, which is importable via Gmail's own interface. I'd still be trusting you with my Facebook login, but I'd be keeping my Gmail login secret.
kcbanner 15y ago
From the description it looks like all computation happens client-side. However, you could verify this with the Webkit network tools.

vicngtor 15y ago

All this does is just scrap off whatever public data is available on your friend's profile. It COULD NOT obtain your friend's email addresses. What's the point of having your friend on gmail without their emails?

mp3jeep01 15y ago

Interesting...and similar thoughts to those below where the "Connect with Facebook" pushed me towards considering the site to be spam. Is the end goal getting information centralized? Makes me think of Greplin, except rather than import all the data to a central 'store', they allow you to search it all from a central location.

zalew 15y ago

Facebook Friend Exporter https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ficlccidpkaiepnnboobcmafnnfoomga https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ficlccidpkaiepnnbo... I've recently came across the problem of exporting friends to gmail and used this solution. There's a problem that phone numbers as well as other data will land in the description area when importing the csv, but at least I got my contacts outside of that walled garden, and it grabs the emails (if friend displays it publically). The subject app seems like it's a similar approach (js) with one difference - it needs permissions, while the bookmarklet above works 100% client-side.

keane 15y ago

If you want to import email addresses from Facebook to Gmail without using an app, try the following: 1. Create a new Yahoo email account (using a browser other than Chrome/Chromium - possible bug). Even if you have an old Yahoo email, create a new one so that the address book starts out fresh. 2. During the account creation process, click on the import contacts "Get Started" link and then choose Facebook as a source. Or visit http://address.yahoo.com/?VPC=contact_import_landing http://address.yahoo.com/?VPC=contact_import_landing and do this. 3. When the Facebook login and authorize popup appears, authorize Yahoo to receive your data. Yahoo imports the addresses. 4. Now that your friends' addresses are in Yahoo Mail, click 'Tools' in Yahoo Mail and then 'Export'. CSV format is a good format for uploading to Gmail (or your local address book). Save the file to your computer. 5. Sign in to Gmail. Click Contacts. From the 'More actions' dropdown menu, select 'Import...'. Click the 'Choose File' button. Select the Yahoo CSV you just saved and click the 'Import' button. Source: http://tcrn.ch/dgb7T3 http://tcrn.ch/dgb7T3 It's silly that Facebook allows Yahoo to access addresses and blocks Google but this roundabout method works.