The Data Liberation Front

The Data Liberation Front is Google's attempt at making it easier for users to export data out of Google products.

Here are a few scenarios where it might make sense to export data from a Google product. Google users who run a Blogger blog realizing that they need to switch to a superior blogging platform or content management system, Gmail users who want to switch from the Gmail website to a desktop email client or Picasa Web Albums users who want to switch to another photo hosting website like Flickr.

The project is run by a Google engineering team which maintains the information on the website. The website lists 24 different Google services such as Blogger, Drive, Google Photos, YouTube or Mail which you can export to the local computer system or save to your Google Drive account.

Update: Google Takeout is the new name of the service. It works in pretty much the same way as before, only that it focuses on exporting data and not importing it. You can select one, multiple or all of the supported services and decide the format you want the data to be delivered in and whether it should be saved locally or to Google Drive.

Google prepares the data then which may take a while depending on how many services you have selected and the data they contain. End

The information provided usually concentrate on showcasing the import and export features of Google products without going into to much detail. Below is the information provided on the Google Docs page at the project's website.

The following Google services are currently listed at the website: Google AdWords, Alerts, Analytics, App Engine, Apps for Business, Blogger, Bookmarks, Calendar, Chrome Bookmarks, Contacts, Google Docs, Finance, Gmail, Google Health, iGoogle, Google Maps, Notebook, Orkut, Picasa Web Albums, Reader, Google Voice, Web History, YouTube

The team is taking suggestions from users and seems to update the pages of the project fairly regular. Internet users can visit the Data Liberation Front website for additional information and the import and export guides.

Advertisement