As I am so much the egoist, I consider myself able to understand most things I read in the newspaper. Yesterday and today, however, I've failed that test when applied to the WSJ story, Google Develops a Facebook Rival.
As I completely agree with Mr. Dewey that a problem well defined is a problem half solved, let me dissect my issue so you have a leg up on helping me solve it.
Yesterday, and again today, I've received alerts from the WSJ to the effect that Google is launching a Facebook rival. Okay. I can understand that idea and have been in this technology business too long to be surprised by this headline. Afterall, Facebook came out of nowhere an now has a population of netizens outnumbering many countries. Facebook has accomplished this by accumulating a critical mass of people and information about people. And, it hosts some sort of entertainments (Farmville, Mob Wars, etc.) that, frankly, I just don't understand. I use Facebook and pretty much enjoy it as it's connected me to people I like a lot.
Google, which for argument's sake, has infinite resources, and, beyond question, has a ton of information about all of us, well, Google can pretty much get whatever it wants. Agreed?
So, here's the part I don't understand: What evidence does the WSJ article cite? Well, Google has been in discussions with several companies that build some of these aforementioned online games. Specifically these companies include Playdom, Playfish and Zynga. And, by the way, Disney acquired Playdom this week for a mere $763 million and that, dear friend, is a whole lot of money. Electronic Arts acquired Playfish in November for a mere $300 million. According to some estimates, Zynga is valued at ~$5 billion. Wow.
So, the rumors that have resulted from Google's chats are that these online games will be part of Google's social networking offering. So let's step back for a second and take a look: the WSJ is reporting rumors that Google is in discussions with online gaming companies that have significant presence on social networking sites. And from this we extrapolate that Google is going to enter the social networking business.
What I hear here is a reporter and editor that can feel a story can't quite report it. What do you think?
