facebook restricted access or deactivated account?

[Ziggy Hood]

a few days ago, when I searched for one of my friends, his name came on one the search bar, and when I clicked his name, it said, "this page does not exist, with the facebook thumbs up." So I thought my access was restricted. My friend count had not decreased. (I don't know if he was on my list of friends, I did not check.) Then I called him and asked him about it, and he said he deactivated or deleted his account. After our conversation, I checked and he is on my friends list now, with the generic light blue and white male facebook profile picture, but it says "account inactive: this account has been deactivated. Only you can see Greg on your friends list. You have the option to unfriend Greg." When I search his name, it does not come up in the search.

I just thought this whole thing was weird. Wouldn't he say, to his friends, I'm going to deactivate my account or something, before doing it, if that's the case. I'm just trying to figure out if I'm paranoid or what the real deal is.
Thanks all for the help.
but so is this the process of deactivating an account? for a few days, when you click on the friends name, it says, "this page is not available" and then a few days later it says, "account inactive: this account has been deactivated...?" Why doesn't it say, "account inactive" right after it's deactivated?

[Uday]

maybe it is a prank
sorry if I am wrong

[Subodh]

Hello Ziggy,
On facebook you can deactivate your account apart from deleting it. This simply makes the link to facebook profile inactive without affecting the friends list and other associated data. Later one can simply re-activate account and start to use it as usual.
Hope it helps.
Regards,
Subodh

[Daniel]

He Deactivated his Account Deactivated Accounts Remain in your Friends List So you Can Remove Them If you Wanted To