In a rapid about-turn, Mark Zuckerberg has reopened access to his Google+ account.

On Wednesday, Zuckerberg changed the settings on his Google+ account so that the general public could no longer see how many followers he had, an ironic move for someone so keen on his customers sharing their data. This meant that the Facebook king dropped out of the Social Statistics rankings completely, even though he had been in the number one slot previously.

However, Zuckerberg has overnight relaxed the privacy settings on his Google+ account and is back at the top of the rankings.

No explanation has been given by the Facebook chief as to the change. But Sneak has a feeling that the many raised eyebrows over Zuckerberg's sudden desire for privacy while still collecting stacks of data on Facebook users might have been the catalyst.

The Google executives who had disappeared off the list have also reappeared.

Earlier today, Social Statistics posted an update about the change: "Yesterday Mark Zuckerberg, along with several Google employees, closed off his profile so their numbers weren't visible anymore. Looks like today they reversed that setting. This completely reshuffles the top 100, again."

Still, Zuckerberg looks like the winner in all this, gaining 50,000 new followers since 12 July, up from 135,000 to 185,000 as of midday 14 July. However, he's ditched the 70 friends he had in Circles last week so this experience can't have left him feeling all that sociable.

14 Jul 2011