Facebook admits hiring PR firm to attack Google

Facebook and Google, the two most popular internet companies, are embroiled in what some think is shaping up as the Internet's biggest battle ever since Google has been working to create a social network of its own called 'Social Circle.'

Facebook’s secret campaign against Google
The social networking giant Facebook reportedly hired giant public relations firm, Burson-Marsteller, to bash Google by planting negative stories in newspapers and across the blogosphere.

According to online tabloid reports, together the two attempted to convince reporters, bloggers and security experts to write negative stories about Google and its invasive privacy policies.

Facebook and Google, the two most popular internet companies, are embroiled in what some think is shaping up as the Internet's biggest battle ever, ever since the search giant has been working to create a social network of its own called Social Circle.

How it exposed?
The Facebook and PR company’s smear campaign began to expose when a Burson agent persuaded a prominent blogger, Christopher Soghoian, to write on Google’s privacy policy and also lured him to get the piece published on influential sites such as The Washington Post, Politico and The Huffington Post.

Soghoian turned down the proposal and instead decided to publish some of the emails he had received from Burson-Marsteller on his website.

In one published email, the Burson rep says: “Google, as you know, has a well-known history of infringing on the privacy rights of America’s Internet users. Not a year has gone by since the founding of the company where it has not been the focus of front-page news detailing its zealous approach to gathering information -– in many cases private and identifiable information — about online users.”

It was not known until Thursday who was the mastermind behind this smear campaign against Google. On Thursday, The Daily Beast blogger, Dan Lyons, broke a story revealing Facebook as Burson's client.

Facebook denies any smear campaign against Google
As expected, Palo Alto-based Facebook denied any such underhanded tactics and tried to minimize the seriousness of the issue, though it admitted hiring the public relations firm but the company said it was only an attempt to bring some serious problems concerning Google’s privacy policies to light.

A spokesman for Facebook said: “No 'smear’ campaign was authorized or intended. Instead, we wanted third parties to verify that people did not approve of the collection and use of information from their accounts on Facebook and other services for inclusion in Google Social Circles.

“We engaged Burson-Marsteller to focus attention on this issue, using publicly available information that could be independently verified by any media organisation or analyst. The issues are serious and we should have presented them in a serious and transparent way.”

PR firm admits mistake
On the other hand, the PR company has stated it was a mistake to have taken on the assignment.

“Now that Facebook has come forward, we can confirm that we undertook an assignment for that client.

“The client requested that its name be withheld on the grounds that it was merely asking to bring publicly available information to light and such information could then be independently and easily replicated by any media. Any information brought to media attention raised fair questions, was in the public domain, and was in any event for the media to verify through independent sources.

“Whatever the rationale, this was not at all standard operating procedure and is against our policies, and the assignment on those terms should have been declined. When talking to the media, we need to adhere to strict standards of transparency about clients, and this incident underscores the absolute importance of that principle.”

Clashing for online traffic
Google and Facebook, the two of the valley's titans, have been engaged in a bitter competition for years in the battle for online traffic. The rivalry has become even fiercer in recent months as reports have claimed that Google is all set to move into social media.

The word is that Google co-founder and newly appointed chief executive, Larry Page, is working on a network called Google Social Circles.

With its 600 million members, Facebook has reportedly been concerned that the Mountain View-based search giant might use its data to create its own social network site.