SocialFolders backs up your Facebook photos & Google Docs on your hard drive

With cloud computing all the rage these days, we often have files and bits of data that live exclusively on a server far away from our hard drives. And while that’s often really awesome, sometimes you want and need a backup of that information on your computer. Enter SocialFolders, a service that backs up your social and cloud data to your hard drive.

“SocialFolders was basically created to help people manage their content on social networks and cloud services and allow everyone to actually own that content,” said Social Folders chief operator and co-founder Martin Pannier in an interview with VentureBeat, “We set out to build this place where you can manage and transfer files, bring all your social and cloud data to your hard drive. We want to bridge the gap between social sites and your hard drive.”

SocialFolders is an app for Windows and Mac that syncs with Twitter, Facebook, Google Docs, Instagram, and as of Tuesday, Evernote. With SocialFolders, you choose which services you want to connect with, and a corresponding folder for each service will appear in your file system, Dropbox-style. When you upload a new picture to Facebook or create a new Google Doc, the new file will automatically sync with the SocialFolders app on your hard drive.

Starting Tuesday, you can add documents, images, and other files to Evernote with SocialFolders; all you have to do is add Evernote as a new service and an Evernote folder will appear on your computer. By dragging and dropping any file into the folder, you can upload it to your notebooks. In addition, any attachments you have saved in Evernote can be backed up to your computer.

While cloud computing has been great at keeping files safe and secure away from fragile hard drives, sometimes people want those files for themselves. On many websites, the terms of service allow the website to use your files however they see fit. But users should have that right too. Backing up your files also enables offline use, and with SocialFolders you can make changes to documents and images, and then sync the changes when you have an Internet connection again.

Currently, SocialFolders supports Facebook, Twitter, Box, Flickr, Instagram, Google Docs, Photobucket, Picasa, SmugMug, and YouTube. Its free service will manage up to 2,000 files for you, and you can get more storage space by inviting friends or by upgrading to the premium service.

SocialFolders was founded in August 2011 and emerged from private beta in December 2011. The company is based in San Francisco, California and has a team of six employees.