Before the rumors even had a chance to die down in the wake of Google’s last acquisition, the search giant snapped up yet another company in the social-gaming space. The acquisition of SocialDeck marks Google’s fifth buy in August.
“We’re super excited to announce that someone found our social games as much fun as you have — in this case, that ‘someone’ is Google,” SocialDeck wrote on its web site. “We started this company with the goal of connecting friends through social games on all kinds of exciting new mobile devices.”
Google’s Gaming Moves
Founded in 2008, SocialDeck’s vision is to enable “anywhere, anytime, anyone” gaming. The company has rolled out several social-gaming titles for the iPhone, Facebook and BlackBerry using its gaming platform. Popular titles include Shake & Spell 3D, Color Connect, and Pet Hero Puzzle. The apps are free.
SocialDeck’s technology makes possible simultaneous game play across multiple mobile devices and social networks. The technology also facilitates viral content discovery, distribution and monetization. SocialDeck raised its first financing round from the BlackBerry Partners Fund in March 2009. The company was founded by Anish Acharya and Jeson Patel. SocialDeck reached the million-mobile-download milestone in February.
Google purchased Angstro earlier this week. Angstro works to compliment Google’s news aggregator services by analyzing a wide breadth of information from multiple data sources to deliver fewer, but more accurate, results. Then there was the Slide acquisition for $182 million. Slide develops apps on social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. Its claims to social-gaming fame include SuperPoke!, Pets and Academy of Magic.
Google’s Social Hook
Google also recently acquired Jambool, which peddles a virtual economy platform called Social Gold that developers can use to create currency systems and monetize them using in-game payments. Founded by Amazon.com veterans, Social Gold also offers analytics. Social Gold is found in popular Zynga…