San Francisco - Online social network Facebook has blocked a recent feature offered by Google (NASD: GOOG) that would have let users take their personal data from Facebook and automatically post it on other sites, Wired.com reported. The company has banned Google's new Friend Connect service, saying it "doesn't respect the privacy standards our users have come to expect." Meanwhile, the company this week announced plans to launch its own Facebook Connect that will do much the same thing as Friend Connect, but allow Facebook to retain control over how its members' personal data is shared.

San Francisco - Google (NASD: GOOG) has launched a preview of its Friend Connect service, which, like the recently announced Facebook Connect and MySpace Data Availability, will enable social media functions to be added to websites without programming knowledge, CNET News.com reported.