Google wants reciprocity deal with Facebook for exchange of contact information; blocks FB from importing contacts

From now onwards, Facebook users won't be able to invite their Google contacts to connect to the social networking spectrum, as the search engine giant has blocked the websites form importing a user's Google contacts into their own database.

The latest move has come to initiate the same practice of inviting users to Google also, from the end of other websites. Earlier, the process was only 'one way' as it allowed Google users to go on other portals and not the vice versa.

Google made a subtle change to the Terms of Service in its Google Contacts API as per CEO Eric Schmidt's concern which he expressed during the Google Zeitgeist conference in September.

The change means Web sites will not be able to automate the import of a user's Google contacts into their own database, unless they reciprocate the exchange.

"We have decided to change our approach slightly to reflect the fact that users often aren't aware that once they have imported their contacts into sites like Facebook they are effectively trapped," Google said in a statement.

Google was trying for this kind of step as Yahoo and Hotmail both its potential competitors already hold reciprocity deals with Facebook and other social networking sites for the same.

This doesn't mean you can't import Gmail contacts onto Facebook, managed by Facebook Connect, you'll just have to add them automatically or export Gmail contacts to your hard drive first.