REVIEW: Backup everything on your Facebook? Why not use SocialSafe!

Now I’ve covered some software before on how to download all your tagged photos and albums from Facebook but that wasn’t a full service.  There was still all your data such as wall posts and friend information left flying around on the Internet. What about all that stuff? Well it can be hard but after recently trying out some new software called SocialSafe, we can all rest in peace knowing most of our data can be backed up safely.

SocialSafe is a multi-platform (Windows,Mac and unofficially Linux) application for £1.99 running on the Adobe AIR platform. It consists of a clean interface with very few buttons pretty much giving you the option to download the data and then scroll across all of it.  Because SocialSafe has a very simple premise -- to build a timed backup of your Facebook data, there is no need for fancy buttons and countless menu screens and this is where SocialSafe excels. For most of you all you will need to do is load up the application and press “Download.”  Gosh I love simple applications.

If you’ve ever used Mac OS X’s feature of Snow Leopard then you’ll get a similar feeling here because SocialSafe gives you the ablitiy to effectively scroll through time as you’ve made these backups to see how you’ve changed.  It really does open up a new window cataloguing your life in an easy way. It saves your status updates (the first time it will go back just over a month depending on how statuses you’ve made) as well as your uploaded photos, friends and your profile information.  What is great about the status updates is it also saves the replies your friends made so you can relive those discussions when you look back at it again in the future.  To really make the best out of this application you need to remember to backup regularly so you can build up a good constructive image of your changes in life.

However there are restrictions to how it is backed up.  For instance although all the photos are downloaded and presented in a beautiful interface you cannot drag and drop any photo onto the desktop or save any of them at all.  Surely as you’ve downloaded your photos there should be an easy way to save them somewhere else and edit them to your desire. I find this is where the developers could really expand and take this application to the next level.  The ability to mass download all the photos from a specific backup and even better just the newly added photos as SocialSafe already distinguishes when new ones are made.  Obviously this won’t be as important with photos you’ve already uploaded to Facebook and leans more towards tagged photos however there is nothing wrong with adding the option for people. While we are on the topic of photos SocialSafe does not record your tagged photos. Now this isn’t their fault as they’ve recently had to suspend the feature and I believe it’s due to the grey area between who owns the photos etc but SocialSafe are hoping to find a way around this.  The ability to backup friends I think is one of the most valuable areas of this application.  Not only does it record the addition of new friends but it also records their page link so all you need to do is click on them and you’re taken to their page -- perfect if something happens to your account and you lose everything!

‘My Profile’ is the last button in the menu bar and simply records the information from your ‘My Info’ tab on your Facebook profile page regarding birthday,relationship status etc.  Although not entirely important if you continue to backup regularly you can see as your relationships change and maybe your favourite activities. Ok you probably don’t need to backup this data but if you’re one of those people who writes a lot about their favourite films/music then this will save you tediously typing it all again. I wish I’d had it before as it would have saved so much time…

So Socialsafe isn’t an entire backup solution in it’s current state in the sense that if you lose your Facebook you can very simply restore everything to it within a short period of time. SocialSafe is more in an element of its own, offering something unique with the ability to effectively scroll through your life in pictures and conversations.  That’s not saying its a bad thing, far from it, at only £1.99 you should definitely have a look as it is in my opinion the best all round service out there. You can get different pieces of software doing separate things but SocialSafe gets a big thumbs up from me for putting it together in one application. If they can just offer some download capabilities so we are not totally restricted to the software as well as hopefully successfully working out the tagged image issue, then there will be no need to look anywhere else! So don’t leave your Facebook data defenceless on the web, make sure you back it up now!