Relevant quote from Google:

"Mass exportation of email is not standard on most social networks - when a user friends someone they don’t then expect that person to be easily able to send that contact information to a third party along with hundreds of other addresses with just one click"

Lets recap:

1. Users use data exporter en masse to abandon Orkut.

2. Google breaks the exporter. Supposedly a bug, coincidentally when people are actually now using it.

3. Google changes the exporter so emails are no longer included.

4. Google says social networks shouldn't be expected to allow mass email exportation.

5. 12 months pass

6. Google breaks the gmail exporter to Facebook. Social networks apparently are now expected export all e-mails. Press eats it up.

Look, I'm not arguing that email exporting should or shouldn't be allowed. I don't really want my friends giving my email to Farmville so they get a golden banana, but it's not the end of the world. What I don't get though, is people talking about this like Google is some godly force of good, championing the rights of users against the evil Facebook.

Please. Google is getting scared, and made a calculated (albeit hypocritical) business decision to try and slow down Facebook's growth. The rest of this is BS PR spin and Techcrunch sensationalism to fan the drama fires.