Googling Google

Google wants your Hotmail, Yahoo and AOL contacts

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Google
Privacy

A Googling Google reader noticed that their Sandbox iGoogle page had a new link on it today -- unfortunately, subsequent attempts to see it were fruitless. He says the link was something like "Find friends that are using iGoogle", and clicking it took him to an interesting page.

This "Chat Import" page asks you to provide your Hotmail, Yahoo or AOL username and password so that it can scrape all your contacts. From there, it can figure out if any of them already have Google accounts -- and if they do, it will let you import them directly into your Chat list. Don't worry though, Google says they won't store any of your credentials for those other services without your permission. What do you think about Google asking for usernames and passwords for other services? [Thanks Martin!]

posted by Garett Rogers
September 13, 2008 @ 10:42 pm

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