Mobile Computing News

Photo: Google

Google is looking to expand its social networking service which could see the Internet search giant taking the social networking giant, Facebook, on in what will be titanic battle of the Internet giants. Google has been enlisting the help of various developers in looking to build a social gaming service which would see the search giant capturing some ad money from the likes of Facebook and Twitter.

The game developers involved

Photo: Zynga

Google, who recently acquired a stake in Zynga Game Network Inc, are looking to work with game developers such as Playdom Inc. and Electronic Arts Inc.’s Playfish. Though from this info we can tell that they are working on something to do with gaming, the finer details remain undisclosed, as Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt declined to say anything on the matter when interviewed earlier this week. Schmidt look to squash the rumour that Google would be developing a Facebook rival, but did, however, say, ’the world doesn’t need a copy of the same thing’.

A growing market

Photo: Facebook

Analysts do believe that Google is looking to capture the revenues which have been produced by social games with the social gaming market standing at an estimated $700 million in 2009. These games also have a large support base, with games such as Farmville on Facebook having more than 60 million active users. However, making money on games like these is another story and as the situation currently stands, ‘Game developers pay Facebook 30 per cent of the earnings from virtual-goods purchases in their games’. This is, however, where Google possesses a significant advantage over Facebook, given that it’s Checkout online payment system would make it easier for active users to complete transactions over their social games.

Facebook continues to grow and recently announced that they had reached 500 million users, making them the biggest social networking platform. Google is looking to compete with Zuckerberg and Co. through social gaming. However, whether they will actually follow out their plans remains a mystery and we’re all just waiting to see what comes from the Internet search giant.