Google phone blunts Facebook app

24 February 2011, Last updated at 13: 33 GMT has increased the number of people to access Facebook from their mobile abruptly Google has stepped up the battle with Facebook data from smooth app social networking site on their mobile phones.

An update to its latest mobile operating system users will see Facebook disappearing contacts from the phone's address book.

Google said it has taken the initiative, as it was no longer willing to Facebook free from its data sharing rules.

The decision was regarded as indicative of the increasing tensions between the two internet giants.

Tamper contact update applies to the gingerbread version of Android, the Google mobile OS-currently only available for phones Nexus and Nexus One 's, which are manufactured for Google.

Those responsible for other Android-based phones are required to make available to its users updating Gingerbread in the coming months.

If these mobiles using the same version of gingerbread as Nexus phones, most owners would find Facebook deleted contacts from their address book.

Originally, the Android app of Facebook allowed users to compile the phonebook of the phone with contacts from Facebook.

However, that data may not be exported from the handset, it was controlled by Facebook-something Google said it can no longer tolerate.

"Since the Facebook contacts may not be exported from the device, the aspect of integration creates a false sense of data portability," Google said in a statement.

Facebook contacts, however, will remain accessible through the application.

More than 200 million people accessing Facebook via a mobile device in 2010, according to their data-up to 65 million in the prior year.

Advertising data

Google would benefit greatly from being able to export your contacts from Facebook users, said Mike Davis, senior analyst at Ovum.

"There's a lot of information, which you can derive from analyzing a list of contacts," he said.

That information could be used to improve the targeting of the ads that Google publishes, he added.

The spat highlights the growing tension between Facebook and Google, said Mr. Davis.

But, He predicted that Facebook is "unlikely buckle" requests at this stage of sharing data of Google.

At the end of 2010, the two companies engaged in a dispute over the data similar to share contact data between Facebook and Google Gmail web based email system.

Facebook has not responded to requests for comment at the time of writing.