Download everything Google has on you

Interesting name, Google Takeout, but the service is straight forward.  Go to the page, log in with your google account and the service will allow you to download everything Google and all its services has on you.  It supports Buzz, Contacts and Circles, Picasa Web Albums, Profile and Stream, but Google promises support for more services and products later on.

Once you recover your data, you’ll be able to save it in open, portable formats, so you should be able to import it to other services easily.

We’ve tried out the service, and it’s really straightforward. You can either recover all your data at once or choose individual services. Google will automatically calculate the estimated size and the number of files in the package, which will show up under the Downloads tab. You might need to enter your password again before downloading the package, which Google says is for security reasons.  If only Facebook were this simple about the information it has on you.