Facebook CEO tells Apple to soften for Ping access

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg at the Web 2.0 Summit called for Apple to ease its approach to connecting Ping with Facebook. He downplayed Apple CEO Steve Jobs' assertions that Facebook had asked for "onerous terms" and instead saw it as a matter of adapting to a modern reality. Apple had to "get on the bus" as everything was being recreated with a social aspect, Zuckerberg said.

Although not directly touching on the problems surrounding negotiations, he reinforced views that the scale of Apple's requests and the amount of feedback would be important. For Facebook to support Apple or any company with tens of millions of possible users, it needed to know how the partner would use the information and how it would give information back, the CEO explained.

He nonetheless emphasized that Facebook was relatively small compared to Apple, Google and others, and that where possible the company of a few hundred would try to strike partnerships rather than create things on its own. Facebook's role would primarily be to add the social component, which would "blow everything else out of the water."

The Web 2.0 interview also touched on the growing fight with Google over data exports and saw Zuckerberg both defend his company but also acknowledge room to change positions. Google's insistence that sharing be two-way sidestepped permission issues. Exporting data could send e-mail addresses, photos and other info that those users didn't necessarily want shared, Zuckerberg said. Users told Facebook they wanted control of what information got out.

Still, he added, "we're not sure we're right on this."

Google has tried to frame Facebook's refusal to allow exports back to Google as 'trapping' data and has tried to discourage users from relying on exports by claiming that contacts would be locked into a separate version once on the social network.

By Electronista Staff

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