Export your Facebook contacts to Google+

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Facebook has been making changes to their site and API in the last few weeks to try to stop the bleeding of facebookers to Google+ by making it more and more difficult to export your contacts.  It’s never been easy, but now it’s even harder, unless you know the one app that still has access to your contact data:  Yahoo! Mail!

Here’s how to export your facebook contact data to Google+.

In short, you’ll be doing this:

  1. Using Yahoo, import your Facebook contacts into your Yahoo contacts.
  2. Using Yahoo, export your Facebook contacts to a CSV file.
  3. Using your spreadsheet, filter out your non Facebook contacts.
  4. Using Google+, Import your Yahoo/Facebook contacts CSV file.

I recommend doing this NOW rather than LATER as this Yahoo Mail export will likely be closed off too, even if you don’t plan on moving to G+, it’s always good to have your contact data under your OWN control.

  1. Import your contacts from Facebook to Yahoo Mail.

    1. Log into your Yahoo mail account (http://mail.yahoo.com).  If you don’t have one, create one.  You don’t have to create a secondary one like other articles are claiming.
    2. Create a new contacts list (you’ll import your facebook contacts here):
      1. Click on your “Contacts” tab.
      2. Click on “New List”
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      3. Enter the name of your new contacts list.  I recommend “Facebook”:
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    3. Click on “All Contacts” (to make the Facebook import tool available), then click “Import Contacts”, then click “Facebook”.
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    4. You’ll be prompted to sign into Facebook, then prompted if you want to share your contacts with Yahoo, of course, you click “Okay”.
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    5. Click “View imported contacts”:
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    6. Now, move all those newly imported Facebook contacts into your Facebook contact list:
      1. Click “Select All”, then “Assign to Lists”, then check the “Faceboook” list.
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  2. Export your contacts to a CSV file:

    1. Open the “Actions” menu and choose “Export All”.

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    2. Click the “Export Now” button beside the “Yahoo CSV” text.

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      3. Choose a location to save your file.  THIS IS IMPORTANT THAT YOU REMEMBER WHERE YOU SAVED IT.  YOU’LL NEED TO FIND IT VERY SOON!!!!

    3. Skip to #4 if your Yahoo Mail account was freshly made and ONLY contains contacts from your facebook import.  This step is to help you filter out all the non Facebook contacts.

      1. Open your favorite spreadsheet program.  If you don’t have one, I strongly recommend LibreOffice.  It’s 100% free and is very compatible with Microsoft Office.

      2. Open your “yahoo_ab.csv” file that you just downloaded from Yahoo.  Your spreadsheet program will likely need some extra information about the format of your CSV file, since there are so many different ways.  Here’s the pertinent information you need to choose:

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        2. This image is from LibreOffice.  Microsoft Office Excel has a similar CSV import dialog box.  Click “OK” when you’re settings are right.

      3. A new spreadsheet will display your Yahoo Mail exported data.

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        2. Notice the “Category” column?  Some say “Facebook” (or, whatever you named your contact list in Yahoo before you imported your facebook data into it) and some don’t.

        3. Sort your spreadsheet by the “Category” column (Column F).

        4. Select all the rows that do NOT have “Facebook” as the category and delete those rows.

        5. Save you spreadsheet.  It’s up to you whether or not to overwrite your exported file or to save this as a new file.  Whichever you do, continue using THAT file in the next steps.  I’ll continue to refer to it as “yahoo_ab.csv”.  Do NOT save it as a spreadsheet file.  Keep it as a CSV file!!!

    4. Import into Google+

      1. Click your “Circles” tab at the top of the page, then click “Find people”, then “Upload address book”:

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      2. Your browser will provide you with a “File Open” dialog box.  Use that to browse to and find your “yahoo_ab.csv” file and choose it.

From there, you can drag them all into your Facebook circle (If you don’t have one, make one).

BTW, if you want an invite to Google Plus, e-mail me at image. That’s not a clickable e-mail address… It’s a picture to prevent spammers from easily scraping it. You’ll need to type that address, exactly as you see it, including the G and the + in front of the word “Invite”.

See this image? image_thumb26
You’ll find an actual working version of it at the bottom of this article. Please click the appropriate buttons in it to let your friends know about this article so they too can quickly quickly get up and going with Google+.

Check back later for updates too!

Click here to follow me on Google+.

Good Luck and Enjoy your new Google+ account!

Converting your Google account to a Google hosted domain account

 

imageClick here to follow me on Google+.

DON’T DO THIS IF YOU’RE A GOOGLE+ USER!!!!

Don’t do what?

Let me clarify:

Let’s say you own a domain name (or you were given an e-mail address on a domain by your school or company that uses Google apps and they have their own domain name (something other than gmail.com) and your e-mail address is something like YourName@YourCompany.org)

Now, let’s say you’ve created a Google account… say a Google+ account, to make it specific to what I’m about to explain.  You went to plus.google.com and created a new Google account.  The name of your Google account is YourName@YourCompany.org and you created a password.  Keep in mind that this is a different account than your e-mail account… the passwords may very well be different.

Somehow, when you log into your Google+ account, Google detects that you also have another account that’s not a Google account, but an e-mail account on your company’s or school’s hosted domain.  Google offers you the option to merge your accounts, or to copy everything from your Google account to your domain account with the same name.

DON’T DO THIS!!!!

Your domain account CANNOT USE GOOGLE+!  You’ll get an error message when you try to go to G+ after logging into your domain account.  Conversely, if you log into G+ with your Google account after you’ve done the conversion, then you’ll lose access to all your uploaded videos and photos.  Neither account will work right.

YOU’VE BEEN WARNED!

See this image?  image

You’ll find an actual working version of it at the bottom of this article.  Please click the appropriate buttons in it to let your friends know about this article so they too can avoid hosing their G+ accoun.

Check back later for updates too!

Click here to follow me on Google+.

Good Luck!

An appeal to Google+

[Update]:  As of around 2pm on 7/27/2011, my account was restored.  I’d like to thank whoever at Google re-enabled it and I’d like to thank those that petitioned Google on my behalf!  The following is my open letter to Google as it existed before my account was restored.

To whom it may concern,

You do not appear to provide a way for us to write any kind of explanation as to why we don’t use our real names on Google+.  You recently disabled my G+ account because I wasn’t using my real name and as such you’re concerned about SPAM.  That’s an understandable concern, but if you look at my history with you, going back to when GMail was still in “invite only” beta stages, I’ve had this account with you, using my pseudonym CSharpner for years and years.  I use this multiple places online to protect my real identity.  It’s the only way to be able to express opinions online without fear of someone finding where I live, my home phone number, and doing any kind of damage to me or my family, either financially, personally, or any kind of bodily harm.

If you’re concerned about spam, please read these articles I’ve written on how I’m in a continuing fight against spam.  Under NO circumstances would I EVER send spam.  You have a history of my online ID going back a decade or so, and you can confirm this.

Here are my anti-spam articles:

  1. How to Stop SPAM: Basic Tips
  2. How to Stop SPAM: Advanced Tips
  3. How to Stop SPAM: Expert Tips

As you’ll see, I use just about every online service you offer using this account.  I use it to make online payments, to receive online payments, for e-mail, for G+, for adsense, for analytics, for my Android phone, for just about everything.  You have my real name and address on file.

Please re-enable my Google+ account.

Thanks!
CSharpner

    Google+ (Google Plus) Suspended my account

    [Update]:  As of around 2pm on 7/27/2011, my account was restored.  I’d like to thank whoever at Google re-enabled it and I’d like to thank those that petitioned Google on my behalf!  The following was my announcement of my account suspension my request for your help as it existed before my account was restored.

    Well, G+ suspended my CSharpner account today apparently because I’m using my Pseudonym of CSharpner instead of my real name.  I have a G+ account I use with my real name for family and friends and a second one with my pseudonym for this blog. I have well over 200 people following me because they find my blog useful.  I prefer to remain anonymous but continue to provide technical help for people as is the intent of the free speech clause in the U.S. Constitution.

    Guys, I need your help.  Please log onto your G+ account.  In the upper-right corner, click the gear icon and choose “Send Feedback”.  In the feedback, please ask them to re-enable the account for “CSharpner CSharpner”.  Inform them that you’ve never received any spam from me and let them know if my blog articles are helpful.  Let them know you respect my right to remain anonymous and you support free speech as is intended in the U.S. Constitution to defend anonymity.

    When Google re-enables my account, I can continue to provide you with the articles you’ve been telling me you’ve been finding useful!

    THANKS!

    Google+ (Google Plus) errors today

    [Update] As it turns out, these errors were because Google had suspended my G+ account without warning.  I was not aware my account was disabled.  I had thought that there were just beta bugs happening.  My account has since been restored though.  So, if you get any of the following errors, your account is probably suspended.  Go to your profile page to check for sure.  If it is suspended, they’ll be a message on your profile page from Google informing you of the suspension.
    ___
     
    Google+ seems to be having errors today with some accounts and not others.  For example, on one of my accounts (the one I use for this blog CSHARPNER), I cannot create circles, invite people, nor even post a status update.  Here’s an example of what I get when trying to invite people:
     
     
    “We were unable to deliver the invitations.  Please try again soon.”
     
    I do not get this error with my personal G+ account.  When trying to add a circle, I get, “Error creating circle”.  When posting a status update, I get: “There was a problem saving your post.  Please try again”
     
    I thought I try from my Android device.  Just posting an update gives me, “The application was unable to communicate with the cloud.  Please check your network connection or try again later.”
     
    Are you getting these errors too?  Please be sure to submit the problem to G+.  Here are simple instructions on how to do it:
     

    Google+ (Google Plus) You Should Most Definitely Leave Feedback

     

    Also, let us know what kinds of problems you’re having in the comments below.

     

    Hello world!

    Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

    An alternative PDF reader to Adobe Acrobat Reader

    Are you as Sick and Tired of Adobe Reader Updates as I am?

    I found a great alternative that’s:

    1. free.
    2. doesn’t bug you for updates.
    3. every bit as good as Adobe’s PDF reader.
    4. knows it’s place on your desktop as a minor app that doesn’t need it’s own system tray icon.
    5. doesn’t speak unless spoken to.
    6. Isn’t a huge bloat of an install.
    7. doesn’t install an app that’s ALWAYS RUNNING LOOKING FOR UPDATES!
    8. doesn’t require you to read 100 pages of legal text every couple of days, displayed in a tiny, scrollable window.

    You can get it here at FoxItSoftware.com.

    image

    See this image?  image

    You’ll find an actual working version of it at the bottom of this article.  Please click the appropriate buttons in it to let your friends know about this article so they too can rid themselves of the constant Adobe popups, legal agreements, and hogged resources that make up Adobe’s PDF reader.

    Check back later for updates too!

    Good Luck!

    Google+ (Google Plus) You Should Most Definitely Leave Feedback

     

    imageClick here to follow me on Google+.

    Google+ is still in trial mode, which means they’ve brought us in to help them work out the kinks.  It’s really important that you report any bugs or funkiness you experience using their easy to use “Send Feedback” feature.  You should do this often.

    How To:

    In the lower right corner of your browser, is a “Send Feedback” button:

    image

    Click that and you’ll immediately be put into screen capture mode.  Your browser page will go gray, except for the new feedback box that opened.  Use your mouse to draw a square around the area of the screen that’s relevant to your issue (if it’s relevant, if not, just skip the screen capture and go straight to entering the text of the issue).

    In the image below, I drew a box around Larry Page’s post.

    image

    Next, enter a description in the big text edit box they give you, then click “Preview”, then on the preview page, click “Send feedback”.  Note that they do not have a way to go back and change your comment, even though they give you a preview of it.  THAT should be reported too, but you don’t have a feedback button on the final feedback page, heh.

    G+ is awesome, but it is in trial mode and this is the part where we help them fix the remaining bugs in their officially “unreleased” software.

    Also check out The Ultimate Collection of Google+ (Google Plus) How-To’s

    See this image?  image

    You’ll find an actual working version of it at the bottom of this article.  Please click the appropriate buttons in it to let your friends know about this article so they too can share their feedback with Google!  The +1 button, as you probably already know, is a Google+ button to share it on your G+ “+1” tab.

    Check back later for updates too!

    Click here to follow me on Google+.

    Good Luck!

    Google+ (Google Plus) and Picasa–Sharing Photos

     

    imageClick here to follow me on Google+.

    Facebook has photo sharing built into it.  Google+ does too, but since Google already has an independent photo sharing platform called Picasa, which you automatically get when you create ANY Google account, including a Google+ account, that’s the mechanism used for sharing photos with your Google+ Circles.

    When you sign up for a Google+ account with an existing Google account, and you’ve already got photo albums in Picasa with that Google account, then G+ will automatically link them (or will detect that you have albums and ask you to link them with your G+ account).  If you already have photos in Picasa and you created a different Google account for G+, then you can’t really move the photos between the two accounts, directly.

    How to move photos from a Picasa account that is NOT your G+ account

    You’ll have to download your photos from your Picasa account to your hard drive, then re-upload them to your new Picasa account that’s automatically created with your new G+ account.

    1. Log into your existing Picasa account… the one that contains your existing photos.
    2. Download them to your hard drive.
    3. Log out of your existing Picasa account.
    4. Now, log into Picasa using your G+ login and password.  You’ll be logging into a completely separate Picasa account that likely has no photos in it.
    5. Create new albums to match the names of the ones you downloaded.
    6. Upload your photos from your hard drive into the newly created albums.
    7. Go to http://plus.google.com  (Since you logged into Picasa with your G+ account, you don’t have to relogin again… you’re already logged in).
    8. Click your “Photos” tab.
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    9. Click “Your albums”
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      • You Picasa albums will show.
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    10. Click the album you want to share.  The photos in your album will be displayed.
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    11. Add the circles and/or individual users you wish to share your album with then click the green “Share” button.
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    That’s it!

    Also check out The Ultimate Collection of Google+ (Google Plus) How-To’s

    See this image?  image

    You’ll find an actual working version of it at the bottom of this article.  Please click the appropriate buttons in it to let your friends know about this article so they too can share their Picasa photos!

    Check back later for updates too!

    Click here to follow me on Google+.

    Good Luck!

    Google+ (Google Plus): How to Create a Circle

     

    imageClick here to follow me on Google+.

    There are several different ways to create a circle in Google+.  It depends on what you’re doing at the time you decide you need one.  In this example, I’ll assume you’re not doing anything in particular and just decided you need a new circle.

    1. Click your “Circles” tab (circled in yellow highlighter below).
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    2. Notice the circles at the bottom of the page?  The bottom left one is where you create a new circle.  You can either drag and drop one or more users into it, prompting the creation of a new circle, you float your mouse over it (The text in it will change to a hotlink “Create Circle”).
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    3. Click the “Create Circle” hotlink inside the gray circle.
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    4. In the box that pops up, type in the name of your new Circle, then click the “Create empty circle” button.
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    Done!

    See also: 

    The Ultimate Collection of Google+ (Google Plus) How-To’s

    See this image? image_thumb26

    You’ll find an actual working version of it at the bottom of this article. Please click the appropriate buttons in it to let your friends know about this article so they too can quickly quickly get up and going with Google+ Circles.

    Check back later for updates too!

    Click here to follow me on Google+.

    Good Luck and Enjoy your new Google+ account!