Board games : Google purchases Slide

Google has continued to focus on board games and social networks with the acquisition of Slide.

This is an acquisition which once again gives credit to the Google Me rumour, a hypothetical social network run by Google which has been over shadowed by the now well established Facebook (500 million users), with Google looking to get involved in board games. Last Friday, Google confirmed the purchase of Slide for an undisclosed amount estimated to be in the order of 182 million dollars.

While the connection between this acquisition and Google Me has obviously been made, Google is still not saying what they will do with Slide’s knowledge, stating that they will study all possibilities to make their board games and services as open as possible to internet users. Google therefore remains rather guarded for the moment.

Google presents Slide as a company which has managed to create board games for tens of millions of people across a diverse range of platforms. With Slide, Google is also able to talk about "fun". Slide is a board gaming specialist who develops games, widgets and applications which can be used in social media, including Facebook, MySpace and even Google’s Orkut.

In July, Google finalised an agreement with Zynga. Still board game related, Google has also been in discussion with other developers like Playfish (owner of Electronic Arts) and Playdom.