Some members of Google's team have gotten together and formed the Data Liberation Front, a group that is dedicated to making Google's products easier to get data in and out of. The group has also launched a website at DataLiberation.org, where users of Google products can find information about how to import and export data.
"Many web services make it difficult to leave their services - you have to pay them for exporting your data, or jump through all sorts of technical hoops -- for example, exporting your photos one by one, versus all at once," says Brian Fitzpatrick, Data Liberation engineering manager. "We believe that users - not products - own their data, and should be able to quickly and easily take that data out of any product without a hassle. We'd rather have loyal users who use Google products because they're innovative - not because they lock users in."
The group's mission statement goes:
Users own the data they store in any of Google's products. Our team's goal is to give users greater control by making it easier for them to move data in and out.
At DataLiberation.org, users can simply browse through Google's list of products and see detailed instructions for each one about how to "escape" to or from any of them. This list includes: AdWords, Alerts, Analytics, App Engine, Apps for Businesses, Blogger, Bookmarks, Calendar, Chrome Boomarks, Contacts, Docs, Finance, Gmail, Health, iGoogle, Maps, Notebook, Orkut, Picasa, Reader, Voice, Web History, and YouTube.
The company says it will be working on adding import/export features to more of its products like Google Sites, and Google Docs (batch-export) in the coming months.
"We think open is better than closed -- not because closed is inherently bad, but because when it's easy for users to leave your product, there's a sense of urgency to improve and innovate in order to keep your users," says Fitzpatrick. "When your users are locked in, there's a strong temptation to be complacent and focus less on making your product better."
Source: webpronews.com
