
Late last year, Google surprised everyone by suddenly blocking Facebook from being able to import contacts from new users’ Gmail accounts.
When it happened, everyone knew that we were watching two tech giants exchange their first earth-shaking blows for the future of the web. It’s only gotten worse from there as the two colossi have poached one other’s employees and actively bid against each other for important strategic acquisitions like Twitter.
But today, things might have gotten real, as Facebook has decided to shut Google out of their social network entirely by demanding that Facebook app developers only use in-app advertising from approved vendors. Guess who isn’t approved? Google.
Well, not Google specifically, but their two major properties in Adsense and Double Click, which combine to form basically the largest advertising force on the web. If you are a Facebook app developer and your app is serving up ads from Google, you’ve got until February 28th to change your ways or you’re going to get booted.
Why isn’t Google on the list? Judging from a statement by Facebook, it may be because Google found Facebook’s terms outlandish and unreasonable.
“If your ad provider is not on this list, we encourage you to contact them to determine if they are planning on signing our terms,” writes Allison Hendrix of the Facebook app verification team.
Given how important security is to Google, is it any wonder that they didn’t want to “sign terms” with Facebook?