BeforeFacebookappeared,people_______．A．hadalimitednumberofaccountsB．enjoyedacom
SincethebeginningoftheInternetera,ithasbeenwidelyaccepted
thatwhenyoujoinanonlinecompany,whateverdatayouputintoit
belongstoyou．
Thatmeansyoucansignupforonekindofemail,importyourcontacts
intothatsystem,andifyoulaterdecidetoswitchtosomeotheremail
service,youcanexportallyourcontactsfromthefirstserviceintothe
newone．YoucanuseMicrosoft'sHotmail,thenmovetoYahooMail,thento
Google'sGmail．Oryoucanhaveaccountsonthreeservicesandkeepall
yourcontactsineachone．
That'thewaythingswere-untilFacebookappeared.Facebooktooka
differentapproachUntilrecently,everythingyouputintoFacebook
couldnotbeexportedanywhere.Ineffect,youdidn'townyourdata.
Facebookdid.
Ofcoursethisisrubbish．TherealityisthatFacebookwantstomakeitdifficult,ifnotimpossible,foryoutoleave．
NowthatpolicyhassparkedafightbetweenGoogleand
Facebook．Googleisangrybecauseitsuserscan,andoftendo,exporttheir
GmailcontactinformationintoFacebook．Butthosepeoplecan'tbring
FacebookinformationbackintoGmail．
EarlierthismonthGoogledeclareditwouldblockexportsofitsdata
toFacebook．Inashamelessmove,FacebookbrokethroughGoogle's
roadblocksoitsuserscouldkeeppullingdatafromGoogle．
Googlesaiditwas"disappointed''withFacebook'sbehavior．Italso
createdawarningscreentotellGmailusersthatiftheyexporttheir
informationtoFacebooktheywon'tgetitback．
Basically,Facebook'spositionwithmajorITcompaniesisthis：ifyou
wantaccesstoalltheinformationwe'vecollected,strikeadealwith
us．MicrosoftandYahoohavedonethat,andnow,likemagic,theycanexport
Facebookcontactinformationintotheirsystems,whileGooglestill
can't．
RemembertheearlydaysoftheNet,wheneverythingwasgoingtobe
openandflee?Thatwasgreatuntilpeoplerealizedthattheiruse
