Right now, Google and Facebook are in a war over contacts. If Facebook wants to import Google Gmail contacts through Google's API, it has to let other services import Facebook contacts. No one was really talking about this lack of contact parity before Google made an issue of it, but now everyone wants to know which side will blink first. The truth is neither one of them is going to budge. Instead, Facebook may change the rules of the game.
Next week Facebook will unveil something e-mail and contact related. No announcements have been made, but this is the prevailing rumor and even the invite indicates some sort of message-based announcement.
If Facebook unveils full-blown e-mail with a Facebook.com e-mail address for all users, Google's little hissy fit will suddenly look rather ridiculous. A Facebook e-mail system is actually a great idea. A half a billion members already use the social networking service as their primary means of inter-friend-relative-and acquaintance communication. This will simply give them a richer platform.
I hate the stories calling this development a "potential Gmail killer." Why does each new advancement in an existing space have to displace something else? Could the Samsung Galaxy Tab "kill" the Apple iPad? Of course not. There really aren't a lot of murderous products out there. Maybe the iPod (which didn't kill all other MP3 players, but certainly turned them into zombies). In any case, whatever Facebook delivers would be exciting and useful for Facebook fans, but they won't dump all their old e-mail accounts from ISPs, GMail, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc, just so they can live exclusively on Facebook.
Google's angry with Facebook because it sucks in those Gmail contacts (if you let it) to help quickly build up your friends list. There is no way for Gmail to suck contact info from Facebook. I have never imported Gmail contacts into Facebook because I like to keep my work and personal lives somewhat separate. I don't know if there are people clamoring to import Facebook contacts into Gmail, but I suspect not—they can already communicate with them through Facebook's simple messaging and chat systems.
A richer Facebook e-mail, with real e-mail management, folders, attachments, CC and BCC functionality could change that, but it won't for me. If Google develops a new social platform (forget Buzz) to compete with Facebook, then perhaps people will want to migrate their Facebook contacts to Google GBook. However, Google recently said it wasn't all that interested in building a Facebook style social network. Which brings us back to the core argument between Google and Facebook. Google lets you put in and take out contact info, and Facebook does not.
That's actually not entirely true.
Facebook now lets you take almost everything out of the service and, to my mind undercuts (at least a tiny bit) Google's core argument.
Much to my surprise, Facebook has finally turned on the eagerly-awaited "Download your Data" feature. It works pretty much as promised (see the slideshow to learn exactly how it works), you can download virtually everything you've posted onto the site in one neat-little zip file. Mine came down as a 4MB zip file. Compiling it took Facebook almost two hours. In it I found my wall postings back three years, photos, notes, events and every single message going all the way back to May 8, 2007. The Zip file unpacks into a mini, navigable web site, so it's easy to click through to all your data goods. Yes, Facebook even includes a list of all your friends. See? Take that Google!
Wait. Hold on. It's not quite that good.
Truth is, this is also where Facebook stumbles—quite badly. The list of alphabetized (by first name!) "Friends" is flat—meaning it's not linked to anything. So you can't click on a name to learn more about who they are, or even, at least, go back to the associated Facebook profile. In messages, Facebook highlights all the names in blue, but it's just a trick—those names aren't linked either. It ends up feeling a little bit like I moved out of my Facebook home with all my belongings and then Facebook moved away. I know it's still there, but why isn't anything linked?
I guess this approach make sense if you're leaving Facebook for good, since you wouldn't be able to access any of contacts anyway. Still, it sort of fails as a true data backup and definitely doesn't encourage porting those Facebook relationships to another platform.
If and when Facebook introduces its mail system, this Download option could change. It could also be engineered right out of existence if, in fact Facebook really doesn't want to share e-mail contact info. This attitude would make Facebook a pain, but I still don't think Google is taking the right approach. I've always loved how Google strove to be the better online citizen. Google, stop complaining, keep your contact API open and let Facebook make the stupid contact mistakes.