Google Takeout


Google Takeout is a project by the Google Data Liberation Front that allows users of Google products, such as YouTube and Gmail, to export their data to a downloadable archive file.

Usage

Users can select different services from the list of options provided., the services that can be exported are as follows:
The user can select to export all of the available services or choose services from the above list. Takeout will then process the request and put all the files into a zip file. Takeout then optionally sends an email notification that the export is completed, at which point the user can download the archive from the downloads section of the website. The zip file contains a separate folder for each service that was selected for export.
For Google+ Pages data, it will only allow you to export data from pages that you have created, not pages that you manage.

History

Google Takeout was created by the Google Data Liberation Front on June 28, 2011 to allow users to export their data from most of Google's services. Since its creation, Google has added several more services to Takeout due to popular demand from users.
Takeout started with exports of only Google Buzz, Google Contacts, Google Profile, Google Streams, and Picasa Albums. The next month, on July 15, 2011, Google added the export of Google +1's to the list after it was frequently requested by Takeout's users. Later in 2011 on September 6, Google added Google Voice to their export service. A big milestone was the addition of YouTube video exports to Takeout next year on September 26, 2012. Google took another big step with the addition of Blogger posts and Google+ pages on February 17, 2013.
On December 5, 2013, Google Takeout was further expanded to include Gmail and Google Calendar data.

Criticism

Earlier criticisms were raised that Google Takeout did not allow users to export from some core Google services, most notably Google Search history and Google Wallet details. Google has since expanded the service to include search history and Wallet details. Google has also added Google Hangouts to the Takeout service. Google also does not delete user data automatically after exporting, they provide a separate service to perform deletion.