In this digital era’s version of “Spy Vs. Spy,” Microsoft and Google find themselves in yet another sharp-elbowed battle to be the one to strike some sort of commercial search deal or product partnership with Twitter, many sources with knowledge of the situation said, as they also jockey for position to evaluate the potential of the much-hyped microblogging start-up.

After last week’s explosive rumor that Google was in “late-stage” talks to acquire Twitter, which BoomTown reported was wildly premature, I set out to try to sort out exactly what was going on.

As I found out, there was a lot–mostly much talking related to possible product and distribution partnerships, centered around Google or Microsoft, as both struggle to gauge the importance of Twitter.

It’s a familiar roundelay for the two most powerful companies on the Web.

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Dear Elliot Schrage:

BoomTown wins.

As Sheryl knows from experience, don’t mess with the Swish. Or Texas. Or Zohan.

Just don’t mess.

For everyone else, here is the entire memo that Facebook sent out this week to its staff about the departure of CFO Gideon Yu and the financial status of the social-networking start-up, which some had been questioning.

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Back in the heyday, Peter Currie was the money man to see in Silicon Valley.

As CFO of Netscape Communications, he led the famed browser start-up into history, as the first great Internet rocket ship, when it went public on Aug. 9, 1995.

Rising to insane levels, the stock was ground zero of the Internet gold rush, despite the fact that it had no profits to speak of. But it did have a 23-year-old co-founder and tech wunderkind in Marc Andreessen and a growth trajectory that was astounding.

If you think it sounds somewhat similar to Facebook today–where Currie will now help out as temporary financial adviser after the social-networking site parted ways with its CFO, Gideon Yu, yesterday–you are correct.

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In a back-to-the-future move, former Netscape CFO Peter Currie will be the key adviser to Facebook about financial matters, until a new CFO is found, sources said.

The temporary move puts a well-known and well-liked Silicon Valley figure in place at the social-networking company at what is surely a tumultuous moment. Currie has most recently been a venture investor.

Today, Facebook parted ways with its CFO, Gideon Yu, saying it was prepping for an eventual IPO. But other sources said the departure was due to increasing tension with Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Perhaps most interestingly, Currie is close with Facebook board member and Netscape Communications co-founder Marc Andreessen.

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Facebook CFO Gideon Yu is leaving Facebook, as the company announced internally today that it was replacing him and searching for a new CFO on the path to an eventual IPO.

The Wall Street Journal also reported the news, noting that the huge social-networking start-up was looking for a CFO with “public company experience.”

But several sources within the company said the departure was more due to an increasingly strained relationship between Yu and Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg over strategic disagreements about a wide range of issues, from increasing ad revenue to fund-raising discussions with investors.

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Here is a great chart, posted on Flickr by Facebook third-party app maker Narendra Rocherolle, that shows the rising popularity of the search word “Twitter” on the social-networking site’s Lexicon.

Facebook’s Lexicon counts “occurrences of words and phrases” on its Walls over time.

Interestingly, Facebook has recently done a redesign that some critics are saying is too much of a panicked reaction to the hype around the microblogging service, although Twitter’s audience is just a tiny sliver of Facebook’s.

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Fresh from his puppy dog-esque “Oprah” interview, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg made good use of the press the talk show appearance engendered to hawk his wares, most especially new features the hot social-networking site has been coming out with of late.

Including some that look suspiciously like Twitter, which declined an acquisition offer from Facebook last year.

But what tool did the ever-clever Zuckerberg also use yesterday to flack his products?

Twitter, of course!

Here is his tweet in question and also a snippet of his appearance with Oprah too.

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Yesterday, Facebook introduced another new look at an open house at its Palo Alto, Calif., HQ.

Much of the analysis centered around how Facebook was trying desperately to mimic Twitter, especially since Zuckerberg said in a blog post that it was (without naming Twitter, which it had tried to buy).

But Facebook was actually borrowing from all over–from AOL’s Bebo too–to leverage whatever is popular out there. After all, with the big numbers it’s putting up on the board in terms of audience, it’s hard to stay as innovative, as much as be a fast follower to those who are nimbler or need to be bold.

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Last week, Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was all about regret when talking about the umpteenth stubbed toe that he got when the social-networking site changed its Terms of Service and accidentally laid claim to every piece of intellectual property in the world.

Okay, maybe not all, but it was enough of a goof to cause him to have to correct it quickly by introducing a complex new system of user-approval and notification.

Here’s BoomTown’s interview with Zuckerberg, who began by noting: “Whenever users speak in a loud voice, it shows how much people care [about Facebook].”

Awwwww, that’s sweet. But, actually, whenever users speak in a loud voice, it is because they are pissed off at you.

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BoomTown is impatiently cooling heels waiting for a press conference to begin about “new steps Facebook is taking to improve user understanding and ownership of the Facebook terms of service and, more generally, the policies of the Facebook service.”

The Yahoo reorg finally announced this morning is positively thrilling in comparison! It’s like being at the Constitutional Convention, except for geeks.

But we’re liveblogging it anyway!

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Under cover of darkness last night, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on the social-networking site’s blog that it would “return to our previous terms of use while we resolve the issues that people have raised.”

Oh, this is just too good to resist. Therefore, BoomTown shall not tarry in our ongoing job of busting the chops of the young Facebook leader, whose minions have actually–and I am not joking here–given him the nickname: The Wizard.

Well, the Wizard obviously had to pull back the curtain last night and show some serious mea culpa to the people, before they got out the pitchforks.

Here’s a translation of Zuckerberg’s message.

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Late tonight, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a blog entry, saying the popular social-networking site would “return to our previous terms of use while we resolve the issues that people have raised.”

Facebook has been embroiled in a controversy this week about its Terms of Service–essentially, a Web site’s rules that users must abide by while using its online service–after changes gave it more sweeping rights over customers’ content and privacy.

Now, in full backtrack mode, Zuckerberg said a new “Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities” was on the way and asked for user input.

Viva La Revolución! I vote for no more SuperPoking!

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In a BoomTown post last night noting that users should just get used to not having much control of their privacy and posted content online, in the wake of the controversy over Facebook’s Terms of Service changes, how could one leave out this gem of a digital diatribe on the issue by gossipmonger supreme, Perez Hilton?

In an item yesterday, Hilton–who has gotten into a lot of copyright infringement legal trouble himself–asked his fans to boycott the fast-growing social-networking site anyway in one of my favorite pot-calling-kettle-black cyber-tussles yet.

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Nobody, but nobody, releases news late Friday afternoon before a holiday weekend, unless they are trying to do a PR pirate raid on another company.

So it was nice to see Facebook, which tried and failed to buy Twitter, having the moxie to release impressive user numbers for the fast-growing social-networking site just as all the oxygen was getting sucked out of the media room by news that the microblogging start-up got $35 million in new funding and a $250 million valuation.

Translation from Facebook founder and CEO Mark “Talk-Like-a-Pirate” Zuckerberg: Aarrr! Yer a scurvy bilge rat, puny Twitter!

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One thing that’s nice in these volatile times is that the Winklevoss identical twins–aka the Olympic rowing hunks whom Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg seems to have repeatedly dunked since college–can always be relied upon to create nonstop entertainment for those riveted to their increasingly kooky lawsuit against the hot social-networking site.

In any case, it’s only the legal hijinks–either via rank incompetency or, more likely, creative leaking–that I want to know more about, especially since release of heretofore confidential information seems to keep seeping out of this case like some hole-plagued rowing shell.

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