• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, August 17, 2011

With the future of social media on the line, Facebook and Google are butting heads over what might otherwise be considered a simple glitch. "A video that was posted earlier today on YouTube by a Google employee depicts an unusual behavior, with Google+ invite links that have been shared with Facebook friends not showing up in the news feeds of other users, despite appearing to do so once posted," explains CNet -- which was unable to recreate the problem itself.

"Users are curious, and they're asking us if we know about this," Bradley Horowitz, who oversees Google's communications products and social applications, tells The Daily Beast. "We're interested to find out if this is an anomaly, or if this is a consistent experience for users. It could just be a bug."

So, "Is Google being paranoid?" The Daily Beast asks. "Or is Facebook really being sneaky? At the end of the day this may not amount to much, as the whole thing is just a tempest in a high-tech teapot.  In the context of Google+'s new gaming initiative, Fortune writes: "A little less than two months after Google launched its fledgling social network, Google+, Silicon Valley's latest rivalry is heating up."

"Ever since Google+ launched, the two social networks have been trying to out maneuver each other any chance they get," seconds Search Engine Land. Adding to the tension, Forbes' Paul Tassi just wrote Google+'s obituary.

As CNet notes, this is not the first time that Facebook's filtering algorithms have been criticized. Eli Pariser, the author of "The Filter Bubble," profiled how filtering on places like Google's search results, as well as Facebook's news feed, can have a big impact on what users see.

"What is, perhaps, surprising is that some of the finger-pointing on this is coming from Google," adds CNet, "which itself uses similar filtering technology on its own search results."