Awkward: The Family 'Feud' At The Heart Of Facebook's Rivalry With Google

Awkward: The Family 'Feud' At The Heart Of Facebook's Rivalry With Google
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Facebook has always been a pretty awkward place. Whether it's an ex-partner you'd rather not speak to whose photos show up in your news feed, or a friend from school you'd rather ignore, there are no shortage of opportunities for awkwardness on its pages.

And, it turns out, in the company itself.

The tech and business website Silicon Valley Insider recently declared that a "feud" existed at the heart of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's family, because two of his relatives now work for... Google.

The search giant is a rival of Facebook's in both search and social media, but both his sister and brother-in-law now work there.

The issue relates to Google's recent purchase of social media analytics firm Wildfire.

Zuckerberg's youngest sister Arielle works for Wildfire as a junior product manger, while his brother-in-law Harry Schmidt, who is married to Mark's sister Donna, is a strategist at the company.

Arielle agreed with her sister, posting (on Facebook): "I just found out that I'm now a Google employee. Not gonna lie... This feels pretty awkward."

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Above: Mark Zuckerberg's sister Randi Zuckerberg

Meanwhile Zuckerberg's other sister Randi is also working in the same space (albeit for a different company) after founding her own social media strategy firm. And the company she resigned from in order to found her new start-up?

... Facebook.

Now, it's not clear how accurate the term "feud" really is. Various profiles have made the family look almost amazingly normal, and none of the relevant parties involved have made any negative statements about the situation.

But it is a pretty interesting reflection of the strange ways that ancestry, families and allegiances splinter and split - even in the modern world.