Facebook Bans Ad That Depicts Google+, Dell Thinks About Using Hangouts for Customer Service
Two very interesting Google+ stories today. First off: don’t try to post a sidebar ad on Facebook that trolls viewers for Google+ followers – Facebook will ban them and suspend your account. It’s a competing product and they probably hold the right to suspend an account and ban an ad for any reason they want so we can’t really call foul here – just silently chuckling on the inside.
Secondly, Dell’s CEO is toying around with the idea of using Hangouts as a form of customer service. I always thought this type of customer service was weird, but we interact with people face-to-face everyday in customer service environments. And for companies like Dell, using Hangouts to help customers could be a valuable tool for troubleshooting.
“I am thinking about hangouts for business. Would you like to be able to connect with your Dell service and sale teams via video directly from Dell.com?”
Michael Dell posted the thought on his Google+ page, natch, so we can’t pinpoint whether or not he’s serious. Either way, it’d add an entirely new dynamic to customer service that could either completely flop or change the way business is done. We look forward to seeing how Google responds, if at all. [TechCrunch, GigaOM]