2011《财富》最愚蠢商业事件大盘点（下）

惯犯Facebook诽谤谷歌侵犯隐私

    Facebook公司今年出现了一长串失误，但在公关领域的惨败或许是该公司最大的败笔。5月份，这家社交网络雇佣了行事激进的博雅公关公司（Burson-Marsteller），散播关于谷歌公司（Google）的负面新闻。具体来说，Facebook希望传播谷歌公司侵犯用户隐私的事件——这种事Facebook自己就是个中老手。

    这是一场经典的抹黑运动，记者丹•里昂斯率先报道了此事。事件曝光后，Facebook承认，它的确雇佣了博雅公司来宣传谷歌在其不事张扬的“社交圈子（Social Circles）”功能中使用个人数据的行为，但Facebook声称它对这种行为的担忧合情合理（一个月后，这个功能正式成为了谷歌的一部分，这不啻为对Facebook的正面回击）。

    最终，Facebook并没有坦白事情的真相——它这样做是为了抹黑其最大的竞争对手，但似乎没有人特别在意谷歌涉嫌侵犯隐私的行为。这次草率马虎的打击行动，反倒让Facebook颜面扫地。——丹尼尔•罗伯茨

Facebook smears Google's privacy policy

    This year's PR fiasco ranks near the top of Facebook's long list of missteps. In May, the social network hired aggressive PR firm Burson-Marsteller to plant negative pieces about Google. Specifically, Facebook wanted to seed stories about Google invading its users' privacy -- something Facebook has plenty of experience with itself.

    It was a classic smear campaign, and reporter Dan Lyons blew the whistle on it. Dragged into the light, Facebook admitted hiring Burson to publicize what it claimed were its very legitimate concerns about Google's use of personal data in its under-the-radar "Social Circles" feature. (One month later, that feature became part of Google , the company's frontal assault on Facebook.)

    In the end, Facebook didn't own up to the real story -- that it attempted to play dirty with its biggest competitor -- and no one much cared about Google's alleged privacy violations. The story instead became Facebook's sloppy, shady hit job. -- Daniel Roberts