Google keeps options open as new Nexus handsets won't allow Facebook contact syncing

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The two “Google phones”, Nexus One and Nexus S, won’t allow users to sync phone numbers from their Facebook contacts like other Android handsets can.

Google has for some reason chosen to disable this feature for the Gingerbread update for the Nexus S handset, explaining the decision thus: “Since Facebook contacts cannot be exported from the device, the appearance of integration created a false sense of data portability.”

So Google won’t share because Facebook won’t share. But while Google has drawn a line in the sand on this occasion, the rest of the statement from Google suggests the company still believes in the dream of data sharing reciprocity as necessary to create “a world of true data liberation”… Just not in this case.

On the other hand, with rumours that Apple is developing its MobileMe data storing service into something resembling a social network, it is possible Google just doesn’t want to put all its eggs in one basket.

ShinyJess
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