Said discussion began this week when tech writer MG Siegler put up a blog post discussing Google deleting his photo (of himself flipping off the camera). We wrote about this, talking about the broader reasoning for Google doing this, which is search.).

Anderson, with his experience at MySpace has a perspective about the whole thing that those of us who have not worked for popular social networking services just don’t have, and he clearly thinks Google+ is succeeding where MySpace failed. Here’s an excerpt from his post (where he calls MySpace a cesspool):

All Google+ has done here is execute on its stated plan: removing offensive photos. This is Facebook’s plan, Twitter’s plan and MySpace’s before it. When you’re processing hundreds of thousands of photos a day (and in Facebook’s case, millions a day), it’s not easy to spot such material (even with algorithms). It’s not that Google+ has decided to do things differently, it’s just that they’re ahead of the game and doing things better. (As they are also doing with their spam detection and removal algorithms. I don’t know what you’re seeing, but they catch and hide 95% of the spam comments that appear on my posts.)

It was very difficult @ MySpace to keep up with the “offensive” photos, and we had decent technology and many warm bodies on the case. (In fact, I’d guess the average person would be shocked how much time and resources we had to put into trying to stop that.) Your suggestion that you should get “warned” is too time-consuming. You want someone to check up on you and make sure you complied with the warning? The limited resources Google could use for something like that would be better spent giving human interaction to questions on how to use the service, technical troubles, etc. Things that seem simple are not as soon as you have 10s of millions of users.

And Google+’s user base is growing rapidly if reports and estimates are to be believed. In fact, Google says some upcoming announcements about user growth will shock people.

By the way, I’m glad to see Tom still capitalizing the S in MySpace.

Michael Arrington wrote last night, "[A] decision has already been made to terminate Chris DeWolfe’s employment with MySpace.  We’ve also been told that the core MySpace executive team will follow. . . .  [O]ur guess is that it’s the very senior team that will be terminated: cofounders Chris DeWolfe (CEO), Tom Anderson (President) and Aber Whitcomb (CTO)."

If true, this would seem to signal that News Corp has lost all patience with the current MySpace-Facebook situation and is ready to take things in some radical new directions.  It’s not every day that from-the-beginning leaders of established organizations get sacked, after all.  And the change wouldn’t just be some boardroom matter, since Tom Anderson is a component of about every MySpace user’s profile.

Still, there’s no guarantee that an executive overhaul will take place.  As Kara Swisher recently pointed out, Michael Arrington and TechCrunch have gotten a rumor or two wrong before (think Google-Twitter and Google-Digg acquisition talks, for starters).

We’ve sent a request for comment to MySpace and will update this article if a reply’s received.

UPDATE: MySpace passed along a press release that states, "MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe and News Corporation’s Chief Digital Officer Jonathan Miller, announced today that, by mutual agreement, Mr. DeWolfe will not be renewing his contract and will be stepping down in the near future. Mr. DeWolfe will continue to serve on the board of MySpace China and will be a strategic advisor to the Company.
 
"Additionally, Mr. Miller announced that he was in discussions with Tom Anderson, MySpace’s president, about Mr. Anderson assuming a new role in the organization."

Almost four months ago, our own David Utter wrote, “Anderson and DeWolfe think they are worth $12.5 million each annually, thanks to MySpace.”  He later added, “The deal they could agree to right away would be $15 million each, spread over two years,” and it seems that this second option is exactly what came into play.

Granted, there haven’t yet been any official confirmations or statements, but people at paidContent.org and the Los Angeles Times have both heard the same thing.  Also, it’s worth noting that News Corp.’s investors will probably be much happier with this arrangement than with the asked-for $50 million.

Still, $30 million (even over two years’ time and between two people) isn’t exactly an insult.  Peter Kafka states, “Our Kremlinologists interpret the renewed, big-dollar contract as a clear message from Rupert Murdoch: MySpace, for better or worse, is DeWolfe’s baby — and if you have a problem with that, you’re out of luck.”

The salary does depend somewhat on performance, however, so the MySpace-Facebook war will still be of interest to DeWolfe and Anderson.

A report on Deadline Hollywood Daily suggested the duo have a minimal chance of seeing such a payday happen. Nikki Finke wrote:

I’m told by News Corp insiders that the chances of DeWolfe and Anderson getting what they want pay-wise is “slim to none” and “highly unlikely”. Even though the duo’s MySpace is incredibly dominant in the social networking sphere, attracting almost 80% of all U.S. visits.

Then again, Friendster was huge until next generation MySpace came along. So I think the duo had better hurry and nail down their deal because, every day, MySpace faces more huge pressure from smaller but increasingly popular Facebook, which now gets 12% of all U.S. social networking business.

The deal they could agree to right away would be $15 million each, spread over two years. That doesn’t sound too bad, considering they sold MySpace to News Corp for $580 million. The hue and cry over their sizable demand sounds a little out of order, though.

First, News Corp managed to make a $900 million deal with Google for search and advertising services on MySpace. Recently, rumors of a MySpace-Yahoo deal began to circulate. That deal, exchanging MySpace for 25 percent of Yahoo, would value MySpace in the neighborhood of $12.5 billion.

Even though the massive pay packet for Anderson and DeWolfe has been greeted dismissively, it may not be out of line with MySpace’s apparent value.