back to article Google brews (another) Facebook rival, says report

Google is in talks with various online gaming companies as part of an effort to develop (another) Facebook competitor, according to a report citing people familiar with the matter. The Wall Street Journal reports that Google is in discussions with Playdom Inc. (recently purchased by Disney), Electronic Arts's Playfish, and the …

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  1. DrXym

    Oh great, Zynga

    Just what Google needs - to turn their social networking app into a cesspit of skinner box games. If Buzz was bad, imagine what Son of Buzz will be like with Zynga or their ilk commanding a prominent role.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    ... so, when is the bubble going to burst?

    There's a point at which 'social media overload' is going to reach critical mass.

    A point when punters just get confused by all the options, the noise, the time consuming banality of babbling online 24/7.

    I can only liken it to the 'Big Brother' TV behemoth - for a short while, everyone was intrigued. Reality TV spin-offs burgeoned and are now staple fair. But ultimately, the public (those with a modicum of intellect) got tired of the same old crap. We started clamoring for good old fashioned quality fiction.

    There's only so much time and only so much you can say online.

    There's only a small percentage, out of the great unwashed masses, with something relevant, witty, entertaining to say.

    There's only so many ways to connect with your mates until you spend more time connecting virtually than actually meeting them physically - it's just nuts.

    Then there's the saddo's who "collect" friends - you know the ones, with thousands of contacts, but fuck all to say. The creeps that keep pestering you to "be friends" - those purveyors of the aforementioned banality.

    Those that created these conveyor belts of unabashed twattery - they are the first to leave, heading for the 'next big thing'

    I predict it'll all fizzle out - we'll end up connecting in more human ways, the ways we've connected for millions of years. Sure, technology will probably be a major player in all of that, but it'll fragment into smaller and smaller groups - natural selection. We won't need the facebooks, the Buzz's, the Twitters of the world - the middle man will get the boot.

    ... at least, I bloody well hope so!

    1. Nic 3

      You just depressed me

      I don't agree it will fizzle out any more than email or sms or the telephone!

      There are only a handful of social networking sites due to the critical mass needed to maintain acttivity. If google want to have another crack at it then so be it. I see no harm.

      Many many people use Facebook as a way of communicating with a wider group of friends then they would normally maintain. I don't see that as a bad thing and I don't see it reducing direct physical meetings.

      Plenty more people use Facebook as a means of organising social events. Again, not a bad thing.

      In our village we use it a bit like a notice board. Status updates like "Pub?" mean a good number of people show up at the local that night. Again a good thing.

      Of course there are banal muppets out there. The same people have always existed. They are the ones to avoid at parties.

      People vote with their feet and at this point they are voting to keep social networking.

      I say vive la difference!

  3. Mike Flugennock
    FAIL

    Zynga?

    ZYNGA? Stop me if I'm wrong, but weren't they the outfit that was busted running some skeezy phishy scam involving adware, spyware, premium-rate dialing, unwanted subscriptions, or some combination of those? Way to be, Google.

    Also, as I've had to set up a couple of Gmail accounts to keep my comms open in case my own domain's email server falls over, I suppose I'll be surreptitiously opted-in to this bullshit without my knowledge or consent -- again.

    Ph'wah.

    1. Adam White

      RE: Zynga?

      Stand corrected, you are wrong - that was Zango.

      1. Mike Flugennock

        re: Zynga?

        Aha. Corrected I stand. Thanks!

  4. David McMahon
    Happy

    So...

    How do I turn it completely off in Gmail?? :)

    ***Breaking news***

    Bury cats home have over 40 Kittens to re-home, so get down there today and be ready for a new excuse as to why your patch cable don't work any-more!

    http://www.burystraycatfund.co.uk/Home.html

    ***Right back to hating Apple!***

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Big Brother

    Facebook competitor

    They're Google, why don't they just buy Facebook and have done with it??

    And then integrate it into to YouTube to create an all-conquering social networking monster to rule us all....

  6. deadlockvictim

    Facebook

    I don't understand why Google have bought facebook yet. They have the cash and I'm sure that Zuckerberg wouldn't say no to couple of billion dollars. It can't be the hiding they'd take in media. And the US Justice department surely wouldn't go after Friends of the administration, would they?

    1. Alex Rose

      Zuckerberg

      "I'm sure that Zuckerberg wouldn't say no to couple of billion dollars"

      He already has done on a few occasions. That's why neither Google nor Microsoft own Facebook.

  7. Tron Silver badge

    Actually...

    ...a FB clone with proper privacy and a proper search engine and a better interface might be quite popular.

    1. Jack 4

      Not using Google...

      Actually, I'd have considered switching over to Google's Buzz as a option when Facebook started screwing with my privacy...if it weren't for the fact that Google showed themselves to be even worse and more clueless about privacy when they signed up everyone with a Gmail account and outed their entire list of mail contacts to the world.

      I hope that someone realizes that there's an audience for social networking with *privacy*, but I'm pretty sure that it's not going to be Google who does it. They've shown very clearly that they just don't *get* it.

    2. Mike Flugennock

      an FB clone with proper privacy and a proper search engine...

      ...y'mean, in other words, not run by Google?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Me too, me too.

    Title says it all.

  9. David Gosnell

    They missed the bit ...

    ... where Facebook allowed all this third party application dross from people exactly like Zynga, at which point everything really started going downhill (even for those who like it, essentially).

    On a related note, what's the odds on Zynga getting hacked sometime in the next six months? Given the way Facebook shares friend-of-friend user data with applications, that would expose just about everyone with an account - and potentially significantly more personal data than yesterday's leak included.

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