Facebook is allegedly red-faced after a dirty tricks campaign against Google.

The war between the two internet giants reportedly exploded into the open recently after it was revealed that Facebook had paid a leading public relations company to run a dirty tricks campaign against Google.

The social networking site admitted it hired global agency Burson-Marsteller to place negative stories about Google in newspapers, magazines and online.

Claims and counter-claims spread across the internet recently, and the rivalry between the two companies was fully revealed for all and sundry to see.

Burson- Marsteller, who is owned by British group WPP, said it regretted working for Facebook on those terms and had terminated its contract.

Facebook obviously sees Google as its biggest future threat. Google has reportedly built up a big team in recent months to develop rival social networking products.

The scandal came to light after a blogger published an email exchange showing how BM touted stories on behalf of an unnamed client about a Google service, known as Google Circles.

The PR company allegedly said it could help the blogger write opinion pieces criticising  Googles system. and then help it place the stories with the media, including the Washington Post, Politico.com and the Huffington Post. Nothing was offered to the Kiwi Riverman Post, however.

The blogger who I won't name here, did not want to pursue the story, apparently describing it as "making a mountain out of a molehill". Probably a good decision. He did post the emails online.

The controversy continues. Google has declined comment and probably won't take legal action against those involved.

Acknowledgements: The Times

When Ralph met Ralph - a mere coincidence...

Did Someone Say "There Is No Such Thing As Coincidence?" So said my friend Familyfunandfaith! But what about when Ralph met Ralph?


"Quite a few years ago I moved to work in a congregation as a youth minister. I knew before I moved there that the preacher and I had the same first name. We were, and still are for that matter, Ralph. It was easy enough for folks to distinguish between us, because he was Ralph A and I was Ralph B., both in seniority and in actual initials.

But I found over the ensuing weeks and months that there was an eerie number of coincidences surrounding us. His wife and mine both had the same first initial, J. We both had two children and we both drove brown Chrysler product station wagon vehicles. Are you impressed yet?

Before I moved to that church I had been writing a bulletin article each week titled Reflections by Ralph. When I arrived I came to find out that Ralph A. was publishing a weekly bulletin article titled Reflections by Ralph. I discovered that his dad and mine, as well as both our grandfathers were also named Ralph.


One day, several months after my arrival, I was in the secretary's office going through the mail that had just been delivered to see if there was anything there for me. I saw that there was a letter there for Ralph A. But I was dumbfounded to read the return address. His dad lived on Chestnut Street in Abilene, mine lived on Chestnut Street in Lake Jackson!


That was enough for me, I quit looking for more coincidences. I did not want to find that we had be switched at birth or some other unacceptable situation!


Got any tales to top that?"

The News at Six - Weird and probably true...

The News at Six...


Weird and probably true:

East German dictator Erich Honecker boasted of his hunting prowess by being photographed with game he'd killed - but his quarry was actually shot by Marx-men lackeys, his cook says in a tell-all book.

"While Honecker and his guests were wading through the woods, most of the hares had already been caught and strung up by professional hunters," wrote Jurgen Krause.

Some of the game was even frozen in advance - "many had not even been defrosted," Krause said.

****
In Malaysia, vanity has a high price.

A businessman there paid $54,300 for a license plate bearing his name, the highest price ever paid for a plate in the country.

The plate, which read simply, "TAN," went to a man identified as, well, Tan, The Star newspaper reported.

****
A small white terrier is back with his family after a mysterious 1,400-mile trip when a microchip implanted in his neck helped identify his owners.

The dog, Kobe, vanished from his Bellflower, Calif., home and was found by a stranger in Denton, Tex.

AVID, the California company that made the chip, flew Kobe from Texas to California and on Thursday he was reunited with his owners, the Ontiveros family.

****
The Taliban have gone to pot.

Canadian troops fighting the terrorists in Afghanistan have stumbled across an unexpected and potent enemy - almost impenetrable forests of 10-foot marijuana plants.

General Rick Hillier, chief of the Canadian force, said Taliban fighters were using the forests as cover.

The Canadians did them one better - they covered an armored car with the herb as camouflage.

****
An 88-year-old grandma from Magnolia, Del., lost her lawsuit against the Postal Service over a clerk who accused her of being a terrorist.

When Lucille Greene tried to mail 30 fruitcakes as Christmas gifts in 2002, the clerk asked her: "What kind of explosives do you have in here?"

Greene was so flustered, she tripped outside, breaking her glasses and chipping a tooth.

The judge said the clerk was likely "less than courteous."

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