BizSugar.com › Products and Services › Facebook squares off with Google over social data

Facebook has been accused of starting a “smear” campaign against Google in light of its social product, Google Circles, but it might really be fighting Google's social search. Social media marketers should monitor how consumers respond to the Google privacy issues Facebook has been “whispering” about as they plan their marketing campaigns.USA Today broke the story that PR firm Burson-Marstellar was hired to pitch anti-Google stories to newspapers about Google's invasion of users' privacy. One blogger contacted by the PR firm exposed the emails sent to him by Burson, and ultimately, Facebook came clean about partnering with the company.The PR fiasco reveals the growing rivalry between Facebook and Google – especially now that Google is becoming more social. In fact, the heart of the “smear” was an issue with Google Social Circles – a rumored product that is not officially live. Some say Facebook has mistakenly referred to the feature at hand as Google Social Circles when it is actually referring to the circle of people and social data used to fuel Google's social search.