Google Developing A Social Networking Site

[Maestro23]

http://gear.ign.com/articles/110/1109145p1.html

According to a report by The Wall Street Journal today, Google is currently in talks with several major game developers for what to is believed to be a new social networking service. The project is expected to be geared as a direct competitor to Facebook, though it how similar the services will be remains unclear.

The company is allegedly in talks with casual game makers Playdom, Electronic Arts, Playfish and Zynga Game Network, the latter of which Google has reportedly invested a financial stake in. While no plans are finalized yet, these games are theorized to be a part of a broader social network.

In a recent interview with Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, the company has yet to confirm the development of this social networking service, which has been rumored to be called Google Me. When asked whether or not this service might resemble Facebook's, Schmidt said, "The world doesn't need a copy of the same thing."

Google's push for social games stems from a recent boom in the phenomenon that has dominated other social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Games such as Farmville and Mafia Wars have turned a lot of profit over the past few years, due in no small part to the developers' advertisements and in-game virtual stores. Studies from 2009 showed that social gaming was a $700 million market in the United States alone this year with billions more in countries like China and Japan.

Google already made strides into the social networking fray back in February with its product Buzz, a service that allows social updates like photos and web links into its emailing service Gmail. This new social gaming development is said to "incorporate and go beyond Buzz" according to a person familiar with the project.

Google's social gaming initiative is just one effort in a long line of one-ups between Google and Facebook over the past several years. Facebook is more and more becoming a competitor to the monolithic Google as it's begun to supply users with a more intimate and personal process for purchasing products and content online, relying on the opinions of friends and family as opposed to Google's intuitive search engine. And unfortunately for Google, much of Facebook's content is generally kept out of Google's search results.

While it remains unclear when Google's social networking service will launch, its talks with developers and investments in Zynga indicate that its enterprise in social gaming is a certain inevitability.