Google today announced “new investments and continued collaboration with industry partners” for the Data Transfer Project (DTP) that it launched in 2018 to make switching to competing services easier. 

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Google Takeout has long let users export and download local copies of their data. With the Data Transfer Project, Google made it so that you could directly move an image library to a third-party service. Google Takeout now lets you select specific Photos albums to transfer.

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With Google Takeout, you can download your data from Google apps as a backup or for use with another service. Unfortunately, a brief issue with the tool last November saw your videos in Google Photos possibly get exported to strangers’ archives.

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Google today in a blog post announced that it is closing down its first attempt at a social network, Orkut. Google says the network will officially bite the dust on September 30th, though starting today, it is no longer possible to create an account for the service. Leading up until September 30th users will be able to make the transition to Google+ or another social network of their choosing. Users will also have the ability to export their profile data, photos, and posts through Google Takeout. The Orkut app will be removed from the Play Store and App Store today.

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