The search giant has been holding talks with gaming companies as it looks to develop a new service to compete with the social networking site, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Google has been talking with developers like Playdom, Electronic Arts’s Playfish and Zynga Game Network about offering their games for the new service it is planning, The Journal said.
The reported plan for a broader social networking initiative comes as the young but fast-growing market for Internet games on Facebook and other Web sites has exploded, increasing the links between social gaming developers and social networking. Google already owns a stake in Zynga, the maker of Facebook games like FarmVille and Mafia Wars. Walt Disney, meanwhile, said Tuesday that it had signed a deal to buy Playdom for $563.2 million.
However, it seems that Google, which already operates the social networking site Orkut and introduced the networking tool Buzz in February, isn’t looking to churn out a carbon copy of Facebook, The Journal said:
In an interview this week, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt declined to confirm the development of a social-networking service that would incorporate social games. When asked if Google’s service might resemble Facebook’s, Mr. Schmidt said “the world doesn’t need a copy of the same thing.”Source:dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com
