The two companies have been taking shots from one another since November of 2010. Past feuds involved removal of Gmail accounts from Facebook and Google’s latest service that prompts Google users to connect with Facebook to collect profile data. The recent event has fueled the rivalry between the two tech giants and sheds light on the growing battle for web user data.

Though Facebook denied intentions of authorizing a smear campaign on the Google Social Circle’s new services, reports reveal that the company anonymously tried to work with bloggers in planting rumors on Google and Gmail privacy practices. Facebook issued an official statement in response to take responsibility.

We engaged Burson-Marsteller to focus attention on this issue, using publicly available information that could be independently verified by any media organization or analyst, the statement said. The issues are serious, and we should have presented them in a serious and transparent way.
It will be interesting to see Google’s next steps as it continues to tread into Facebook’s territory for social network dominance.

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