Anyone who was hoping to use Facebook as a springboard to find new Google+ friends and followers may want to think twice.
Web developer Michael Lee Johnson, who is based in the UK and Greece, according to his Google+ profile, created a Facebook advert asking people to add him to their Circles on Google+. Johnson's ad was quickly removed by Facebook and he has been banned from running adverts on the social network altogether.
The ad was headlined: “Add Michael to Google+” and stated: “If you're lucky enough to have a Google+ account, add Michael Lee Johnson, Internet Geek, App Developer, Technological Virtuoso.”
Johnson posted the message he received from Facebook to his Google+ profile, and said: “LOL: I recently ran a Google+ advertisement on Facebook that got all of my campaigns suspended. Great.”
According to Johnson's post, Facebook's message to him said: “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.”
Johnson added to his post: “PS: Facebook - You Suck.”
Getting touchy
Facebook does, however, include a “Refusal of Ads Clause” in its advertising guidelines. The clause states: “We may refuse ads at any time for any reason, including our determination that they promote competing products or services or negatively affect our business or relationship with our users.”
Last week, Google CEO Larry Page confirmed predictions that the search giant's new social network, which is still in field-trial stage, has over 10 million users. Page said registered users are also sharing over a billion items each day.
It has also been reported that Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt has said Google would leave the door open to more cooperation with social media giants Facebook and Twitter.
Facebook, however, appears to be somewhat less open to collaboration and has also recently blocked the Facebook Friend Exporter, a Google Chrome browser extension that allows users to export friends from Facebook to Google+. Facebook has recently exceeded the 750 million user mark.
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