Google Secretly Invested In Zynga, Preparing To Launch Google Games

Can you imagine working on Farmville? I mean, it would be like going into work every day to refine the equivilent of the Fisher Price moo farm toy [1] except a) for adults and b) relatively juvenile. Imagine the meetings, mostly run by marketing idiots.<p>"Okay, we need the new chewy coco grove coconut tree special item out by next Monday. So that means everyone's coming in on saturday."<p>But how can you argue with 85 million users and a billion in revenue? Google sure can't.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek_qxoGDyAw" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek_qxoGDyAw</a>

Just throwing this out there: I consider it unethical to invest in Zynga.<p><i>Edit:</i> They are essentially using psychology, social and otherwise, to ultimately trick people out of their money. A classic on the topic: <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/31/scamville-the-social-gaming-ecosystem-of-hell/" rel="nofollow">http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/31/scamville-the-social-gaming...</a>

Does this mean we can finally abandon the idea that Google's mission is "to organize the world's information"?

I think Google's worry about Facebook (partly justified, partly not) is starting to cause them to make pointless (and time wasting) decisions.<p>If I had 5mins with Sergei and Larry, I would say (after taking a long sip from the free organic drink I just got from the snack bar we're standing next to)<p>"Look, the real enemy is not FB but Apple (and sometimes your own engineering hubris, e.g. Buzz), so focus all your troops on this front. Don't dilute your strengths with topsy-turvy fads like Farmville. Remember the last time you tried that route when you tried to copy Second Life's act, does anyone even remember them now? Concentrate on (i) getting an Android tablet out, and (ii) get a $99 Google TV box running on Atom with cool software (not the sorry thing you showed at the I/O) to beat Apple to the punch.<p>It's <i>that</i> simple."

Oh Google. The sharks are circling and you're strapping on your waterskis.

It's strategic for both parties. Google wants to get Facebook users onto their own network and Zynga needs to reduce their sole dependence on Facebook.

Is it just me, or is Zynga raising an absolutely obnoxious amount of money?

I don't quite understand how this fits into the grand scheme of Google. Now I think Google is just buying stuff to buy stuff. Though I could see acquiring user-interaction data being useful, especially in the casual space.

This is great news for China. While the Silicon Valley gets rotten from inside, making this useless stuff, they will be buying bankrupt US chip companies and making their own microprocessors.

Interesting. Both Google and Zynga are very much data driven companies.<p>Remember story about Google choosing shade of blue by testing 41 variants?<p>That's how Zynga designs its (extremely successful) games. Everything is measured and analyzed. They are basically conducting one massive experimental psychology study of what makes people (s)tick.

Farmville is evil; Zynga makes Farmville; Google invested in Zynga.<p>Q.E.D.<p>;-)

Well, good luck to Google. Given that the public donated $175k to a group of inexperienced, unknown programmers who did little more than say they were out to replace Facebook, I'd say the market is ready for an alternative.

Every day I go to 7-11 for coffee. And cringe at the zynga branding everywhere.

Zynga games will tie into the GoogleMe ecosystem nicely.

Google -&#62; Google!

Wasn't Zynga threatening to leave Facebook or start a (long) legal battle? This is ideal for Google of course since they have been struggling to get their social networks to really take off. Getting Zynga to move to Google exclusively could be the boost they have been waiting for so long.

This sounds like TechCrunch editorializing and trying to make a story out of nothing.<p>I don't think Google cares about this.

The article says something about social graph but that doesn't make sense. Gmail basically rules the world when it comes to email so they already have a lot of social graph information just from email correspondences. There must be some other strategy they are pursuing.

The potential of this is astounding, across Google web, Android, and Chromium.

Anyone has heard of "Google Games" before? It seems to be a social gaming platform which will be available on Android as well. Couldn't find any info about it though.

Isn't TechCrunch a terribly unreliable source? I thought after the last.fm debacle that you shouldn't exactly trust them.