Google, possibly getting its cards ready for its next big move, is buying social-gaming company Slide as it dumps its Wave collaborative platform. The New York Times reported earlier this week that the search giant had purchased Slide for about $228 million, citing two unnamed sources, and a formal sale announcement was expected Friday.
p
Slide provides virtual goods, social games, and virtual community applications for Facebook, MySpace and other social-networking sites, such as SuperPoke Pets, Top Fish, SPP Range, and SuperPocus Academy of Magic. Revenue sources include sales of virtual goods, which some observers anticipate will reach $1.6 billion this year in the U.S. alone.
p
subhead
‘Some Sort of Eruption’
/subhead
p
On Wednesday, Google announced on its blog that it is ending development of Wave, its real-time collaboration tool. Despite numerous loyal fans, posted Senior Vice President Urs Holzle, Wave has not seen the user adoption we would have liked. Holzle noted that a variety of technical innovations in Wave are available as open source.
p
Google has also invested $150 million in Zynga, the online entertainment company behind Farmville and Mafia Wars on Facebook.
p
Brad Shimmin, an analyst with Current Analysis, said Google’s purchase of Slide and plug-pulling of Wave are a build-up to some sort of eruption from Google.
p
He noted that, as an infrastructure vendor, Google’s big move would likely involve infrastructure. But a key question, Shimmin noted, is the degree to which Google will also be releasing one or more products under its own brand. The rumor mill has been speculating about a Google Me major social-networking service to rival Facebook.
p
subhead
Search ‘Better’ with Social Information
/subhead
p
Google CEO Eric Schmidt has indicated that his company does not intend to compete with Facebook, but to do an end run around it. The Times quoted Schmidt as emphasizing the importance of social networking, because search is going to…