Facebook Polls launched Friday night with a fair bit of fanfare. It’s a tool with a wealth of possibilities but be warned: don’t mention the competition in your poll questions!

My first attempt at creating a Facebook poll:

After initial surprise I tried a few related questions. “Is Facebook better?” works indicating that Facebook is not restricted text. Is Facebook better than Yahoo, Google and Microsoft all work.

What about the direct competition?

Is Facebook Better Than Orkut? The poll question contains restricted text.

Is Facebook better than Friendster? The poll question contains restricted text.

Is Facebook better than Communist China? BINGO. works, no error message.

Is Facebook Precious? this one works

So is Facebook better than MySpace? Whereas News Corp blocks widget providers, Facebook blocks free speech. I know which one annoys me more. Let’s just hope it’s not a sign of things to come.

Update: A Facebook representative responds in the comments, saying “Some outdated code was used that should not have been. When we learned it was blocking those words, we fixed it. We regret the mistake.”