4 ms·

Although I'm no fan of walled gardens, I have much greater faith in Google adopting an open, federated protocol, given their track record, than I ever had with

Although I'm no fan of walled gardens, I have much greater faith in Google adopting an open, federated protocol, given their track record, than I ever had with Facebook. And if they did, that would push Facebook to adopt it as well.

SkyMarshal 15y ago
Fwiw, in your Google Plus settings menu, one of the top level items is "Data Liberation", where you can download all your data, including your conversation streams, in zip and/or json. Nice to see that in there from the start.
- michaelchisari 15y ago
  That's great, and a huge step above the dump that Facebook emails you, but that's not quite the same as federation.
- akkartik 15y ago
  As it happens I just tried it an hour ago. Contains your posts but not your comments or +1s. It looks like there's currently no place I can go to see all my comments or +1s. The +1 tab only shows external +1s from google search. Also, images attached to posts are not with the stream but with your Picasa pictures, which is weird.
orijing 15y ago
It's a competitive tactic to be open when you're small and less open when you're big. For example, you can download your entire profile as a .zip file from Facebook (not sure if you can get the email), and you can allow any apps to access your data (again, probably not email), even though Facebook is the largest social network on the web. In comparison, Google doesn't let you download your entire search history and everything else that they collect about you--what sort of ads you like, keywords that have worked well for you, links you've clicked on. To me, my "search history" is my profile on Google while my wall/profile is my data on Facebook.
- jonknee 15y ago
  You're wrong. You can export your search history as an RSS feed (well I can't, as I have web history turned off). Not sure how that would be useful though... And to be fair, Facebook doesn't let you download your entire search history and everything else that they collect about you either. They only let you download what you put in. Google does the same, you can download your Gmail contacts (or sync them to another service), Picasa photos, Reader subscriptions, etc.
- jeffdavis 15y ago
  "For example, you can download your entire profile as a .zip file from Facebook" Do you get all of your connections (by what identifiers?), all the messages you've sent, and everything else?
  - orijing 15y ago
    I don't know. I haven't touched that feature in a while. But there's a philosophy that you own your content, but connections are owned by both ends. I'm not even sure that being able to export your wall (including others' private comments) is fair to others. Otherwise, you end up with Google's public-sharing bug (where you can share a private item publicly). There's a fine balance between respecting your privacy and flexibility, and those of your friends.
    - rxin 15y ago
      This argument is too weak to sell. In the same realm, you should remove from the zip file photos that contains the user's friend(s).
    - jeffdavis 15y ago
      "Otherwise, you end up with Google's public-sharing bug (where you can share a private item publicly)." If you share something digital with someone, they can share it with someone else. That's just the way it is. Interfaces and clients should help you avoid doing that accidentally, and even make it slightly challenging (perhaps you need to write a new client against their API or something) -- but preventing you from exporting your own data, or data that someone has explicitly shared with you, is just not justified. It sounds a lot more like a convenient excuse for lock-in.

SkyMarshal 15y ago

Fwiw, in your Google Plus settings menu, one of the top level items is "Data Liberation", where you can download all your data, including your conversation streams, in zip and/or json. Nice to see that in there from the start.

michaelchisari 15y ago
That's great, and a huge step above the dump that Facebook emails you, but that's not quite the same as federation.
akkartik 15y ago
As it happens I just tried it an hour ago. Contains your posts but not your comments or +1s. It looks like there's currently no place I can go to see all my comments or +1s. The +1 tab only shows external +1s from google search. Also, images attached to posts are not with the stream but with your Picasa pictures, which is weird.

orijing 15y ago

It's a competitive tactic to be open when you're small and less open when you're big. For example, you can download your entire profile as a .zip file from Facebook (not sure if you can get the email), and you can allow any apps to access your data (again, probably not email), even though Facebook is the largest social network on the web. In comparison, Google doesn't let you download your entire search history and everything else that they collect about you--what sort of ads you like, keywords that have worked well for you, links you've clicked on. To me, my "search history" is my profile on Google while my wall/profile is my data on Facebook.

jonknee 15y ago
You're wrong. You can export your search history as an RSS feed (well I can't, as I have web history turned off). Not sure how that would be useful though... And to be fair, Facebook doesn't let you download your entire search history and everything else that they collect about you either. They only let you download what you put in. Google does the same, you can download your Gmail contacts (or sync them to another service), Picasa photos, Reader subscriptions, etc.
jeffdavis 15y ago
"For example, you can download your entire profile as a .zip file from Facebook" Do you get all of your connections (by what identifiers?), all the messages you've sent, and everything else?
- orijing 15y ago
  I don't know. I haven't touched that feature in a while. But there's a philosophy that you own your content, but connections are owned by both ends. I'm not even sure that being able to export your wall (including others' private comments) is fair to others. Otherwise, you end up with Google's public-sharing bug (where you can share a private item publicly). There's a fine balance between respecting your privacy and flexibility, and those of your friends.
  - rxin 15y ago
    This argument is too weak to sell. In the same realm, you should remove from the zip file photos that contains the user's friend(s).
  - jeffdavis 15y ago
    "Otherwise, you end up with Google's public-sharing bug (where you can share a private item publicly)." If you share something digital with someone, they can share it with someone else. That's just the way it is. Interfaces and clients should help you avoid doing that accidentally, and even make it slightly challenging (perhaps you need to write a new client against their API or something) -- but preventing you from exporting your own data, or data that someone has explicitly shared with you, is just not justified. It sounds a lot more like a convenient excuse for lock-in.