Awkward...Mark Zuckerberg's Sister Now Works for Google

Mark Zuckerberg's youngest sister became a Google employee this week — inadvertently. Google announced on Tuesday that it was buying Wildfire, a startup specializing in advertising on social media like Facebook and Twitter, where Arielle Zuckerberg works as a junior product manager.

The news spread after Randi Zuckerberg, the eldest sibling and a former Facebook director of market development, tweeted: "Congrats Wildfire! There are officially now more Zuckerberg family members working for Google than Facebook! #awkward ;)."

Arielle was in Israel on Birthright when she found out. She shared her reaction on Facebook: "I'm in Israel on Birthright and I just found out that I'm now a Google employee. Not gonna lie... This feels pretty awkward, but I also feel very proud to be a part of the Wildfire team on this exciting day for (Wildfire co-founders) Alain (Chuard) and Victoria (Ransom)."

It turned out Arielle wasn't even the only family member joining Google. Her brother-in-law Harry Schmidt, a product strategist at Wildfire married to Mark's other sister Donna, was also part of the deal.

Facebook and Google were, by 2012, in increasingly direct competition across social networking, advertising revenue, and the battle for users' attention. For two relatives of Facebook's founder and CEO to land at the chief rival — even by acquisition — carried a symbolic charge the business press wasn't going to ignore.