Trying to free your friends from jail a.k.a. Facebook? Not so easy! Facebook makes it very hard to export anything, presumably to keep people from leaving. After all, re-creating a list of hundreds of people on another social network is a significant undertaking. The recent release of Google+ made me wonder how to copy Facebook Friends to Google+ Circles. Here is your get-friends-out-of-jail-free card:
- Log in to a Yahoo account (create one if you forgot your credentials from 1999 – I did)
- Go to address.yahoo.com
- Click the Facebook icon
- Enter Facebook login credentials
- Click “OK” when prompted to share your contacts with Yahoo
- When finished click “Done”
- Click Tools -> Export
- Choose a format. For a generic format, choose vCard single file
Voilà! You just downloaded all of your Facebook contacts, including names and email addresses. You can now import them into any program.
For import to Google+, things are even easier:
- Log in to Google+
- Click on Circles
- Next to “Find Friends” label, click on Yahoo
- Enter your Yahoo login credentials (if asked)
- Click “Agree”
Voilà (again)! Your Yahoo contacts are now available to be added to your Circles. Drag them to the Circles of your choosing as you did with other contact suggestions. Enjoy!
If you need a Google+ invite, drop me a line @grublev.
