Google Working on Facebook Rival

Apple isn’t Google’s only competitor these days: Google is working on a new social media site that would rival Facebook, The Wall Street Journal reports. The tech giant has been in talks with several top game developers—including Playdom Inc., Electronic Arts' Playfish, and Zynga Game Network—to offer games in the social-networking service. Google CEO Eric Schmidt wouldn’t confirm the plan, and, when asked if the site would resemble Facebook, said “The world doesn’t need a copy of the same thing.” A Google social-networking site would be great for social-game developers because they wouldn’t be so dependent on Facebook. Demand for the games is high—more than 50 million people use Zynga’s Farmville game on Facebook—and on Tuesday, Disney bought Playdom for $563.2 million, plus up to $200 million more if it hits performance targets. Google launched Buzz in February; the service offers updates on friends’ photos and links but drew big complaints about privacy.