As the days pass, people are flocking to check out Google+’s new spin on social networking. While it’s too early to tell just how much Google+ and its Circles feature will impact Facebook, it’s quite apparent that the social networking giant isn’t taking too kindly to its newest rival.
Michael's ad as seen on Facebook.
Meet internet geek Michael Lee Johnson, an app developer and self-proclaimed “Technological Virtuoso”. Armed with his new Google+ account, he made it his goal to rapidly grow his new network—but how? Inspiration hit Michael, and he created a series of ads to be placed on Facebook, the first of which was simply headlined “Add Michael to Google+”.
Shortly after the ad’s debut, Facebook responded in a classic kneejerk reaction: disabling Michael’s account and putting the kibosh to his entire campaign. They also sent him a conveniently vague letter, which Michael shared in his Google+ posts:
Your account has been disabled. All of your adverts have been stopped and should not be run again on the site under any circumstances. Generally, we disable an account if too many of its adverts violate our Terms of Use or Advertising guidelines. Unfortunately we cannot provide you with the specific violations that have been deemed abusive. Please review our Terms of Use and Advertising guidelines if you have any further questions.
Since the ads were pulled, Michael has garnered at least 1,460 new followers from the ordeal. Many of them came after reading CNET blogger Chris Matyszczyk, who ran an article recently that looked into what “specific violation” Michael could have crossed.
Satire flows from Michael's Google+ page.
Meanwhile, Michael continues to post in his Google+ page with images and comments that poke fun at Facebook’s reaction, such as “the best thing I ever did was delete my Facebook account. Now I’ve got more time to use Google+”. The original post about the ad’s removal earned over 400 comments and cresting 1,000 shares, with subsequent posts still getting decent amounts of attention.
My take on it: it’s more than clear that poor little Zuckerberg and his crew have felt that their collective toes have been stepped on. While it’s understandable for Facebook to dislike running ads that direct traffic to a competitor, it makes it look like they view Google+ as a threat when the go so far as disabling someone’s account.
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