Loren Feldman is so full of it. He basically says that Facebook is ok to block accessing it using a script, in response to Robert Scoble being banned… It is my data, since the people i know gave it to me!! If I want it in my outlook – it is my business! If I want it in my gmail – it’s my business! If I run a software or service that uses my data – it’s my business. The reason that facebook displays the data to me – is because they know i should have it. they just don’t want me to “really have it”, meaning – having it locally or being able to do something with it. ohh… for that, i’ll need to sit down and copy the infor for my 500 friends (which i do one by one, when i need to get someone’s most updated info. and it’s annoying to say the least!)
The spyware companies used the “it’s in terms of service” argument all the time! It’s a stupid argument.. So what if it’s in the terms of service – it doesn’t make it a good practice.
Facebook motivation is simple – they want to make life harder for the competition and they want people to develop Apps inside facebook and not outside – and they do all that on the expense of the user.
Update: Michael Arrington thinks they had it comming
Update2: Oh, and Plaxo – keep running your service, just make sure you run it slow enough and add some random pattern to it.
