Google has taken another step in its social media and social networking strategy with the acquisition of Slide Inc., a developer of social networking entertainment applications.
While Google didn't reveal the financial terms of the Friday acquisition or detail any immediate plans, the Slide acquisition adds another feather to Google's social media cap as the search giant looks to battle Facebook and other social media services that have dominated the Web. The Slide buy also continues Google's acquisition momentum in 2010, which has reached double-digits.
"We're excited to announce we've acquired Slide, a social technology company with an extensive history of building new ways for people to connect with others across numerous platforms online," Google engineering director David Glazer wrote in a blog post announcing the Slide acquisition. "For Google, the web is about people, and we're working to develop open, transparent and interesting (and fun!) ways to allow our users to take full advantage of how technology can bring them closer to friends and family and provide useful information just for them."
Slide applications are most commonly used on Facebook and MySpace to let users send virtual gifts to friends within their networks or create their own virtual offerings. Google's addition of Slide could be a sign that Google is looking to take on gaming within social networks or tie the functionality into its existing offerings to enable sharing. The Slide scoop-up will help Google beef up the social networking components of some of its existing applications, as well, Glazer wrote.
"Slide has already created compelling social experiences for tens of millions of people across many platforms, and we've already built strong social elements into products like Gmail, Docs, Blogger, Picasa and YouTube," Glazer wrote. "As the Slide team joins Google, we'll be investing even more to make Google services socially aware and expand these capabilities for our users across the web."
