Google+ invite links aren't showing up on Facebook news feeds | Hacker News Reader

Google+ invite links aren't showing up on Facebook news feeds

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59 pointsmhansen23 comments

"We have seen the video but have been unable to replicate the experience it shows," a Facebook representative told CNET in a statement. The company also once again detailed how its display-filtering technology, which surfaces news to user feeds, has built-in safeguards to keep potential spam out (emphasis mine): "Newsfeed is an automated system that is designed to deliver the most relevant content to you and your friends. The technology evaluates hundreds of factors, including your relationship to the poster, the type of content, the click-through rate (where appropriate), and people hiding similar posts from their feed. In real time, it decides what to display to you and what to filter for both Top News and Most Recent. It also includes systems that attempt to identify and block spam. Links have a history of the most abuse and are given the most scrutiny. As a result of all of these factors, a given link may be shown or filtered to people differently at different times."

Just as a thought experiment, let's assume this is deliberate. Is this:

1) That big of an issue? 2) Surprising?

I'm going to say no to both. They're competitors.

Thinking through it more though, I could see that it seems anti-competitive and, thanks to facebook's position in the market, monopolistic. Though it's not as if facebook is the only way to share links to material on the internet so I don't think that really counts.

If it silently doesn't share it, that's a problem. If it just blocks you from posting it and let's you know, that doesn't seem as bad to me. At least it isn't deceptive anyway.

Those are both fair distinctions (Silent vs Notifying and the deceptiveness vs 'bad').

Incidentally all the Facebook notifications and deal emails I receive on my gmail inbox have this warning message in red: "Warning: This message may not be from whom it claims to be. Beware of following any links in it or of providing the sender with any personal information. Learn more" and all the links are blocked.

This is either a really dumb spam filter or a cheap anti-competitive ploy by Google. (I doubt if it could be the former.)

Never had this issue, so it sounds like an error. Or maybe google is just messing with you ;)

Here's a screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/KYdUb.png

This happens consistently for any Facebook notification email or Deal email. Also, all the links in the email are blocked.

I also tried getting a google + invite to my facebook e-mail address and it doesn't go through.

You had a mail sent to your Facebook email address (xxx@facebook.com) and it didn't arrive? Can you try go to Messages (either on the left-hand menu near the top, or the middle icon between friends and notifications) and select the "Other" under Messages in the left-hand menu?

I'm flagging this because multiple people have tried to replicate this result with no success.

I think it is obvious by now that the world is not moving over to Google Plus. This service is most likely going to be on the same route as Buzz.

Just like it was obvious when Facebook was 2 months old and had 1% of the users g+ does that people would stick with myspace?

You're right, but it's not relevant to this discussion.

"(they appear to have stopped on Friday)"

For anyone that knows anything about facebook development. We know that facebook releases on Fridays. Every Friday. This means its a feature and not an error.

It will take a little time for the updates to be released world wide as the system engineers release to users in increments. So because some people see it and others don't is understandable.

Hey - My name is Blake Ross and I'm a director of product at Facebook. Your statement is wrong. Facebook pushes code every day of the week, and our big weekly push is on Tuesday.

As a director of product at Facebook can you tell us whether FB is blocking Google Plus links for any users intentionally?

To supplement what Blake said, I remember watching this awesome video about Push at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10100259101684977

They push changes daily, and if anything, according to the video, they say they stay away from major pushes on Friday because weekend traffic is significantly lower and some problems may not manifest under the reduced load before it hits the fan on Monday.

Can you tell us if this is a deliberate move by Facebook to sensor such links? Do you intend to further sensor the spread of google+ ?

Since when do legitimate questions get downvoted ? Etiquette suggests that we only ask questions that we would if the person was in the room. These are good questions. Why the downvotes?

From the guidelines: Be civil. Don't say things you wouldn't say in a face to face conversation.

Maybe a lot of FB employees on here.

Considering the comment "As a director of product at Facebook can you tell us whether FB is blocking Google Plus links for any users intentionally?" posted a minute later isn't being voted down, the hidden voting bloc might be spelling pedants.

Could it be that your CDN and caching will refresh on Friday?

Even if your Friday theory was the case, it means absolutely nothing. Errors/bugs don't normally just jump up out of nowhere, they come from an issue in the coding, so naturally new bugs are likely to be noticed shortly after new updates go live on a site as well as new features.

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