Google has announced that the company now offers a secure way for third party websites to access any user's list of friends, with their permission, and based on a proposed new industry standard. No more giving away your GMail password and then having random services you want to try go into your account and scrape the information there.

Called Portable Contacts (PoCo) , the technical spec offers a standard, interoperable way for social networks to serve up your friends lists to anyone you give permission to access them. This should allow application developers to innovate on top of your social connections much more efficiently.

Source 1: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_implements_new_open_standard_for_friends_li.php

Source 2: http://googlesocialweb.blogspot.com/2009/03/take-your-google-contacts-with-you.html