Liberating your contacts from Facebook

Here is a simple method of getting your contacts out of Facebook and into your Gmail.

It starts with Yahoo! Facebook allows exporting of contacts to Yahoo!, reportedly through a lucrative arrangement. You will need a Yahoo Mail account, but they are free: ? http://www.yahoo.com/ – and click “Signup” if you don’t already have an account.

in your Yahoo mail, there is a Contacts selector in the left column. it looks like this:

 

SelectContactsinYahoo-7

 

Once you have selected Contacts,  Select Tools -> Import, as shown:

SelectImportinYahoo-8

 

You will get a dialogue like the one shown below. Select Facebook:

SelectFacebookinYahoo-9

 

Facebook will ask you to confirm that you want to share contacts with Yahoo!, click “Okay”.

 

OkToShareWithYahoo-10

 

Yahoo! will report success, including the number of contacts imported.

 

YahooContactsImportFromFacebook-1

 

Now you export the contacts, using a very similar method. This time, select Tools -> Export, as shown.

 

YahooContactsExport-2

 

Choose an export format in the dialogue shown below. Yahoo! CSV works best for importing to Google.

YahooContactsExportChoices-3

 

Yahoo! checks to see that you are a real person by asking you to transcribe some mashed up letters:

YahooContactsExportVerify-4

 

Once the export is complete, open and log into Gmail, select Contacts, and then More Actions -> Export. You will get an “Import contacts dialogue like the one below.

 

GmailImportContactsDialogue-5

Choose the file, and I recommend also adding these to a special group at the same time, which will help you see them all. Google seems to do a pretty good job of merging duplicates, but having them in a special group will help you check and fix any problems. (I had no problems from my import.)

 

GmailImportComplete-6

 

 

Congratulations! Your Facebook friends’ contact info are now all in your Gmail!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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