This a brief overview of how to import Facebook friends into Google Plus. With Google Plus finally opening up to everyone it seemed like a good time to explain this to people. I did this a few weeks back, which is why everyone I’m Facebook friends got early invites (or at least should have).
1. Create a new e-mail account through Yahoo. The name doesn’t matter, you’ll only use it for about fifteen minutes. It is very important that this is an account that is new and has never been used before.
2. Within your new Yahoo Mail account import your Facebook contacts. Go to the “Contacts” Tab, then “Import Contacts” then click on “Facebook.” You’ll have to be logged in to Facebook or it will prompt you to do so. Go ahead and click through all the prompts until you have a bunch of contacts in your Yahoo account (where you previously had none because it was new).
3. Export your Yahoo Mail contacts into a .csv file. Go to the “Contacts” tab and go to the black “Actions” drop down and click on “Export All.” The option you want to select is “Yahoo! CSV.” Go through the prompts and save the .csv file to your desktop. This file is a format readable by Microsoft Excel that will list Name and Email address for all of your Yahoo contacts, which at this point are all of the email addresses your Facebook friends used to register for Facebook.
4. Import the .csv file from your desktop to Google Plus. Before going through with this you might want to go through and selectively edit. Keep in mind that these are the e-mail addresses people used to register with Facebook and they might not all be up to date. Once you have the list of people you want to add all at once, go to Circles > Find People > Upload Address Book.
Facebook is making a major announcement this morning. By all indications it surrounds e-mail, or more specifically, they are finally revamping the horrible messaging system they have been using. The company recently acquired the fb.com domain name, leading some to think that they will move the 1400 employees to @fb.com e-mail clearing the way for regular users to register @facebook.com e-mail addresses. Yahoo employees use a similar @yahoo-inc.com method to alleviate confusion.
Despite any on going issues I might have about Facebook, this might be enough to pull me back in. While I don’t like the idea of a company with privacy concerns like Facebook having access to my e-mail, I do like the idea of claiming an important part of internet real estate. If I can have an all but dormant Facebook account and have @facebook.com e-mails forward to my gmail account, I might be sold.
The truth is that this could turn into very valuable internet real estate to get your hands on. Just like having your name.com registered or that perfect twitter handle, it could be the key to making sure you are the person turning up at the top of the search results when you’re googled. It could be the key to controlling your image on the internet, something that will only become more important over time.
With 500 million users, the addresses will go fast. I don’t want to be in a position months or years from now regretting that I didn’t nab a good @facebook.com address and be stuck with something less than desirable. Is this going to be the way people get in touch with me initially in the future? Luckily I don’t have a really common name like John Smith, but I do have to battle with people really into their zodiac sign.
Is this going to be enough to get me to return to Facebook? I’m not sure, I’ll have to wait and see what is actually announced.