Zynga Investment May Herald Google Games

A post at TechCrunch claims knowledge of large investments from Google into social game company Zynga, makers of FarmVille and Mafia Wars. The amount of money involved is not small — somewhere in the $100-200 million range — and could facilitate Google's expansion into the games market. Quoting: "The investment was made by Google itself, not Google Ventures, say our sources, and it's a highly strategic deal. Zynga will be the cornerstone of a new Google Games to launch later this year, say multiple sources. Not only will Zynga's games give Google Games a solid base of social games to build on, but it will also give Google the beginning of a true social graph as users log into Google to play the games. And I wouldn't be surprised to see PayPal being replaced with Google Checkout as the primary payment option. Zynga is supposedly PayPal's biggest single customer, and Google is always looking for ways to make Google Checkout relevant."

Relevant.

[ScrewMaster]

Personally, I'm always looking for ways to make Paypal less relevant.

Re:Relevant.

[SquarePixel]

Personally, I'm always looking for ways to make Paypal less relevant.

The funny thing is, PayPal is mostly just relevant in the US and other western countries. Other countries have better online systems with full encyption, added security and several ways to use their system, and people happily use these to pay their phone and tv bills and everything else. You can also top up your account by buying one of the several coupons from the kiosk near you.

It's actually quite funny how US people put up with PayPal and their shitty and insecure system.

Re:

[ScrewMaster]

It's actually quite funny how US people put up with PayPal and their shitty and insecure system.

It's actually quite funny what people in other parts of the world put up with that we do not. However, in Paypal's case I think it's more a matter of ineffective regulation than anything else.

Re:

[sortius_nod]

That's why I laugh at US citizens crying about PayPal. For PayPal to operate in Australia they have to adhere to Australian regulations, so I've never actually had any real problems with them. We have strong consumer protection laws (providing people are willing to use them) so screwing over customers isn't a huge option.

Maybe instead of crying foul in PayPal, cry foul on your consumer protection laws. Oh wait, you want small government. The prices you pay for your supposed freedoms.

Re:

[yoyhed]

I'd rather have the choice not to use PayPal here in the U.S. than be forced to follow the laws of a government like Australia's. Censorship of media is one thing that comes to mind.

I also use PayPal for hundreds of dollars of transactions each month. I've had no issues - I pay the 3% fee for incoming payments, and I pay the $1.00 ATM fee to get out my money in cash as soon as I can.

Re:

[mrmeval]

A government that can give you everything you want can take it all away. We're something like 12 trillion in debt. Paypal is trivial compared to that.

Re:

[moreati]

Well lets make them more relevant :). What are the names of some please?

Re:

[hey]

Do you have any examples or URLs?
Maybe us Westerners can use something else.

Re:

[citizenr]

what URLs? every bank has online transactions, money are transferred few times a day/immediatelly (depends on the bank/system). Online Banking is free and dead simple.

Re:

[jonwil]

Here in Australia, I can transfer money from my bank account to any other bank account in Australia with ANY bank and I dont pay a cent. (other larger and greedier banks may have different fee structures)
And I dont have to worry about my account being frozen or transactions being reversed because the other guy filed a complaint.

Re:Relevant.

[macraig]

Right now some of us in California are looking for ways to make Meg Whitman less relevant.

Re:

[mortonda]

Many of us are wishing California was less relevant.

Re:

[macraig]

Hmmmm... are you really wishing Texas or Arizona were more relevant?

Re:

[kyrio]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:On-line_payment [wikipedia.org]

eg: Moneybookers

Re:

[guyminuslife]

What's wrong with PayPal?

I'm not arguing, I'm genuinely curious.

Re:

[kyrio]

Everything. Locking accounts to make up money that they lost. Having money stolen from you because someone decided to keep what you've sent and also file that they didn't receive it (or other types of situations like this). Massive fees. No contact information. Stealing donation money.

Re:

[ScrewMaster]

Everything. Locking accounts to make up money that they lost. Having money stolen from you because someone decided to keep what you've sent and also file that they didn't receive it (or other types of situations like this). Massive fees. No contact information. Stealing donation money.

That's a good start.

I can see it now...

[DWMorse]

[Google Search] World of Warcraft

Did you mean: World of Googlecraft?

Re:

[Eudial]

And nothing of value was lost.

Crap Flash Games

[TechyImmigrant]

This is more likely to herald the entrance of Google into crap, very buggy flash games with unsubtle ways to get children to bug their parents to pay for very expensive pixels to put in their crap flash game.

Re:Crap Flash Games

[Zerth]

I'm rather surprised Google would invest in Zynga, considering their reputation for working with spyware, scam deal sites, personal information harvesters, and other things that Google would warn you about if you clicked on them in Chrome.

Not that it matters much, but this actually tarnishes my opinion of Google a bit.

Re:

[Aliotroph]

Perhaps they took that into account, thinking they might clean that up a bit while they go along. It would make no sense at all for most businesses to do something like that, but Google makes strange business decisions.

Re:Crap Flash Games

[tomhudson]

The terms of use are also very slimy [zynga.com]

You waive your right to sue, to join others in a class action or other collective lawsuit, to filing an injunction,

Their privacy policy also sucks [zynga.com] - remember how facebook leaks your personal data - zynga admits it:

. We may offer you the opportunity to submit other information about yourself (such as gender, age, occupation, hobbies, interests, zip code, etc.), or we may be able to collect that information from social networking systems on which you have used Zynga Games or SNS Apps ...

We may use information about you that we collect from other sources, including but not limited to newspapers and Internet sources such as blogs, instant messaging services, Zynga games and other users of Zynga, to supplement your profile.

Yes, zynga is a spyware business.

Re:

[Cylix]

Well being as how they publicly admit to do everything awful in the universe to make a buck and stay afloat I'm not surprised.

To the guys credit he was pretty much right on. The people who would read the article and actually worry are the ones they were not targeting. Basically, any informed viewer of their applications they knew they were already going to make less on.

He was also a bit prophetic and wagered that the scum bugs would be pushed out of the business as it legitimized. It's a bit like a wave in

Re:

[L4t3r4lu5]

Waive your right to sue? That's pretty outrageous... Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract?

Re:Crap Flash Games

[N0Man74]

I felt the same way when I read this.

I guess it's "Don't Be Evil... just invest in someone else to be Evil for you."

Re:

[dangitman]

I'm rather surprised Google would invest in Zynga, considering their reputation for working with spyware, scam deal sites, personal information harvesters, and other things that Google would warn you about if you clicked on them in Chrome.

Well, Google also bought Doubleclick, so I don't think they have any reservations about buying dodgy companies.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Facebook has more traffic than Google

Absolute rubbish! How about backing it up with some research [pixelvulture.com]? FB is a mere blip on google's traffic, let alone aggregating google's sites.

Re:

[icebraining]

New data released from analytics service Hitwise today names Facebook the largest website in the U.S. with 7.07% of all U.S. visits.

Facebook doesn't have more traffic than Google.

Re:

[Enderandrew]

How is a factually true statement a lie?

No, those are considered other sites. When people count eBay's traffic, they don't include PayPal, BillMeLater, Skype, StubHub, etc.

Ford has been claiming in all their ads for years that they have the best selling truck on the planet. Right now, since Ford is up and Chevy is in the toilet, that is technically true. But for years and years, it wasn't. GM splits their truck sales under the Chevy and GM brands. Combined, GM sold more trucks than Ford. But GM isn't consid

Re:

[Beale]

It's okay that they'll be buggy, though, since they'll just be beta versions.

Re:

[nurb432]

Ill go one step further and predict if they stick with this path, it will be their eventual undoing.

Re:

[jadin]

My first thought was that this is a sneak attack on facebook.

First they buyout facebook's most popular app(s), then add them to Google products, and discontinue the facebook versions. Offer a 'bonus' for using it on Google if needed.

But if I had to guess, people who have spent $100+ on their farmville game etc, will have a strong desire to not throw away that "investment", including following it to a competitor's social network. Especially since google's buzz or wave is free, and it's not like they force yo

Re:

[tomhudson]

... or maybe they saw it as "Crap Flesh Games" and figured "here's something to get the nerds on board - and motivate people to work long hours.

... they could have two brands: Google Games for the PG-rated stuff, and Zynga for all the rest. It's not like Zynga can get a worse reputation than it already has.

Re:

[icebraining]

GMail is popular (but less so than hotmail or yahoo mail)

Probably, but is that true in new users per month? Both Hotmail and Yahoo exist longer than GMail, and email is one of the internet services with the largest cost to switch (changing the address you gave to so many people through the years).

Re:

[Tom9729]

That's not much of an excuse. I have Yahoo! mail and Hotmail accounts, and I tied them into my Gmail. Now I only have to check one account, and I can send emails out through my old addresses from the Gmail interface. It's not very difficult to setup either (Settings -> Accounts and Import).

You get all the benefits of Gmail (lots of storage, excellent spam filtering) but you can keep using your old addresses. :)

Re:

[victorhooi]

heya,

I do exactly the same thing, and I keep my old Yahoo.com address around. Yet I never actually log into my Yahoo account directly. So I think there's probably some distortion there.

And I'm sorry, the Google is only good at Search is an old and debunked myth.

Gmail is *very* popular, and has awesome mindshare. Seriously, who the heck actually prefers Hotmail/Yahoo over it? Most people just stick to it because it's too hard to change addresses, and they don't know that you can check your other accounts via

stay classy google

[mjwalshe]

With Zyngas past indiscretions I am surprised that Google partnered with them.

Re:

[dangitman]

With Zyngas past indiscretions I am surprised that Google partnered with them.

Why?

Re:

[mjwalshe]

check out the coverage on Techcrunch Zynga did a lot of scummy things and teh CEO admitted it.

$200 million?

[mr_lizard13]

Wow, how many experience points did they get for that!

Re:

[Ihmhi]

I imagine they got around 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 XP or so.

.

.

.

(Blargh, stupid repetition filter is stupid.)

Google Android tie in

[OrangeTide]

I can't wait for the pointless shit games to hit the Android market.

Re:

[OrangeTide]

I've played them all. It is incredibly difficult to find any artistic merit to them, and on top of that they aren't actually entertaining to the vast majority of people who play these mindless games. But there are a lot of things that suck that are still popular, like cheap fast food and reality television. You praise your own abilities to filter the unwanted content, but cannot or will not filter my simple post.

Also the personal attacks on me make it pretty obvious that your post is a troll. But I had fun

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Google Android tie in

[icebraining]

http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/content/cultivated-play-farmville [futureofthebook.org]

Cultivated Play: Farmville

by A. J. Patrick Liszkiewicz -- SUNY Buffalo (Amherst)
March 09, 2010 - 22:44
[This essay was given as a talk at SUNY Buffalo, 28 January 2010, the day after Howard Zinn's death. I have left the text unaltered, to better reflect the spirit of the talk.]

"I'm worried that students will take their obedient place in society and look to become successful cogs in the wheel - let the wheel spin them around as it wants without taking a look at what they're doing."
-- Howard Zinn

The great social historian Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States, died yesterday of a heart attack. Zinn devoted his life to educating Americans in their country's history, that they might better understand their place in its present. Such understanding is today at a premium. Ours is a time of confusion, of unprecedented changes that outpace our perceptions. As Zinn might have said, the wheel keeps spinning faster, and the faster it spins the harder it is to see.

At such times, and at such speeds, the task of educating ourselves becomes all the more urgent. We are citizens of a democracy, and democratic citizenship has always been a difficult skill to master. This is why Aristotle tells us that, in an ideal state, citizens would possess ample leisure time: the education of a citizen depends upon contemplation, deliberation, and training. Citizenship requires cultivation and, as any farmer would tell us, cultivation takes time.

Perhaps it seems a waste of time to discuss video games at a moment like this. After all, this is a serious discussion, and games are supposedly frivolous things. Most any concerned parent might say, "Play is an occasion of pure waste: waste of time, energy, ingenuity, skill, and often of money...."[1] So said Roger Caillois in his book, Man, Play, and Games. Of course, Caillois went on to praise games as a source of joy, as well as a healthy means of "escape from responsibility and routine."[2] For Caillois, as for Aristotle, games are in fact essential to citizenship: they allow us to refresh and renew ourselves, help to socialize us, and afford us opportunities to cultivate our imaginations and reasoning skills.[3]

If games are essential to citizenship, then this could be a promising time for our democracy. According to a recent survey, over half of American adults play video games, and one in five play everyday or almost everyday. Does this mean we are becoming better citizens? Ninety-seven percent of American teenagers play video games.[4] Does this mean they will become more politically active? Before you dismiss these questions, keep in mind that in October 2008, then-Senator Barack Obama became the first U. S. Presidential candidate to advertise in video games, when his "Early Voting Has Begun" ads appeared in Madden 2009, Burnout Paradise, and other Electronic Arts video games.[5]

Much has been made of President Obama's sophisticated use of new media technologies. He utilized the internet extensively in organizing and raising funds for his campaign, and has maintained an active presence on popular social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr. To illustrate, he is currently taking questions about last night's State of the Union address via YouTube, and plans to answer those questions next week in a live, online video feed.[6] While it remains unclear how such events are affecting politics, it is clear that ne

Re:

[icebraining]

You said:

Surely someone who didn't find something entertaining wouldn't do it, the whole purpose of entertainment being to fill some spare time with something amusing?

But that's exactly what the author disagrees with: he says that people play Farmville not because it's entertaining, but because people play Farmville. Doesn't make sense? Go read the article.

Re:

[OrangeTide]

It's neither entertaining nor artistic. Gotta have one or the other. At least the splatter fest movies have drama when the hero almost dies but then gets up and kills the last nazi/alien/whatever. Farmville is like a 15 numbers puzzle where all the tiles are blank. You can't win or have any fun with it. About the only thing is that moving the pieces around could be therapeutic to those who relish repetitive motions. (essentially the definition of OCD)

myself do not eat fast food or watch reality television because I don't like either.

Then this entire discussion is pointless because you real

a most excellent question

[OrangeTide]

I don't play the games, why would I take offence?

A most excellent question.

I feel

[Dyinobal]

I feel sort of out of touch I have no idea who zynga is, did they do something important at any point in time?

Re:I feel

[Tukz]

Don't know if it's important, but they had a significant impact on casual games (and possibly also micropayments in same category).
As the article states, they made games like Mafia Wars and FarmVille on Facebook, which are extremely popular.

Zynga has a higher revenue than Facebook itself.

Re:

[hedwards]

Google would've probably been better off buying Popcap, the games are quite good and a worthy show piece for HTML5 based gaming.

Re:

[Exitar]

They want money, not quality!

Re:I feel

[Surt]

They became the dominant provider of social games, to the tune of being able to pay about a thousand salaries, and are close to becoming the largest gaming company in the world (I think they only have 2 ahead of them, and they are closing in fast).

Re:

[Johann Lau]

they waste loads of time and energy. satan is very much pleased with them.

Re:

[jandrese]

IIRC they're one of the largest game companies in the US. They're also made out of pure evil, which makes the google investment puzzling at best.

Google's Defense of Flash

[shway]

This probably sheds some new light into Google's sudden defense of Flash blog post from June 29

http://apiblog.youtube.com/2010/06/flash-and-html5-tag.html [youtube.com]

Investing in a bunch of Flash games means they have to now start propping up the Flash platform instead of only touting the virtues of HTML5.

Re:

[trapnest]

This probably sheds some new light into Google's sudden defense of Flash blog post from June 29

No, no it doesn't. Why do you people refuse to accept that HTML5 is simply not ready for primetime and get over it. No, it's got to be some secret plot from microapplegooglesoft.

Re:

[L4t3r4lu5]

Uhhh... Apple refuses to support Flash on its mobile devices. I think your Megacorp should have been Micro'dobegooglesoft.

Re:

[IANAAC]

Google never actually uses Flash except for where it's absolutely necessary.

And Bristol Palin never actually had sex except for that one time she got pregnant.

Got news for you: even if it's embedded use only, it's still used. If Google really wanted to work towards the downfall of Flash, they would, by not using it. Flash has *never* been the only option available. Just the most convenient.

HTML 5

[ruiner13]

Perhaps their intent is to help them port their games to HTML 5 and showcase it. I am not personally one who plays these types of games (ever), but they certainly have huge followings. Getting these to HTML 5, then saying "Gee, I suppose you need an HTML 5 browser. Oh, IE doesn't work? You don't say!" seems to be what I'd say is Google's motivation. With their rabid followers who need to keep their farms healthy and mad cow free (or whatever it is they do), they could really push a LOT of people to HTM

Re:

[selven]

Google has been getting pro-Flash lately, with their recent blog post [youtube.com] and the integration of Flash into Chrome. It looks like a strategy against iPhones and iPads more than anything else.

Re:

[ruiner13]

If it is an app, then it likely runs on one of the Flash -> objective C conversion frameworks. Otherwise, they would just run it off of the Facebook site as usual.

Re:

[trapnest]

...still required a Facebook login so I deleted it.

Yeah, where else would they get the info to sell to their marketing partners.

Time to lose my Google account.

[Sowelu]

If my Google account starts showing up in random places like my Facebook used to (back when I still had a Facebook account), and if I ever see a single Farmville style friend request show in my email, I'm dropping my gmail/whatever account and not looking back.

Considered moving to paid for a while

[improfane]

Me to. Have considered this for a while. Never been comfortable with how much they know about us.

Can anybody recommend a good paid email host?

It's not going to be fun changing all my account's email addresses but could set up a redirection while still changing over. It's not as if I even use the Gmail interface, which is slow.

Re:

[koiransuklaa]

When you do switch, pick an email address based on stability and longevity, don't just take what the next email host offers you. People often fail to recognise that these to are separable things.

As an example, lots of people in Finland use iki.fi, a non-profit society that exists just to provide stable private email addresses for people living in Finland (they don't do hosting or anything it's just about the addresses). I assume this awesome invention has been made elsewhere as well... I purchased my own d

Re:

[L4t3r4lu5]

Google cares. Honestly.

Money is the language of corporations, and Zynga / Bookface generate more per hour than you make in a year. They're not going to miss you. They're not going to miss the entirety of Slashdot. We are the informed minority, and our protest will be drowned out by the sound of 30m $0.99 digital livestock purchase, or a $0.59 pixel rake.

Zynga are evil

[__aailob1448]

But Paypal is also evil.

I feel the same about this that I felt about the Iraq war and Saddam Hussein.

Re:

[Enderandrew]

How is PayPal evil?

Full disclosure, I'm a PayPal engineer.

Re:

[trapnest]

PayPal has locked the accounts of me and a few of my friends for bullshit reasons and refused to do anything about it. Together we've lost close to 5,000USD.

Re:

[Enderandrew]

I have a friend who has worked in Fraud for years and years. I wouldn't call him evil or a dick. In fact, he's one of the better people I know. He went through training to become a Sheriff so he could help people even more, but PayPal ended up bringing him back to work for them.

When people tell me their account was closed for "bullshit reasons", the most common cause for that is someone putting up a PayPal donation link, claiming their site is a non-profit/charity, and not getting off their ass to file pape

Re:

[RobertLTux]

What would help things is if paypal decided to link up with a network of "real" banks and have accounts backed by a real banking account.

Re:

[Enderandrew]

PayPal did have a proper bank before way back in the day. It was the first online bank, called X.com I do believe. X.com is now used for developer tools.

Banks are regulated differently. I know PayPal has looked at trying to either have a proper bank back end again, but hasn't yet. Banks aren't seen in a very positive light right now, which may be part of the decision Walmart also stopped their efforts at forming a bank.

Re:

[n0nsensical]

Arbitrarily stealing users money with no recourse? you got a lot to learn

Re:

[__aailob1448]

They overcharge for transactions. Paypal's commission should be a flat 1% on all transactions. Not 3-4% + fixed charges.
They have a horrid customer service with a "fuck you" attitude.
They do not protect the sellers of services or electronic goods (redeemable coupons, product keys, etc.)

But the engineers who work there are very competent people. I have no technical complaints so rest easy on that front.

Pro-tip: Paypal doesn't care about you and you shouldn't care about them, much less defend them.

Re:

[Enderandrew]

Any transaction through PayPal gets fraud protection. My mother got caught in a phishing scheme. Her bank account and credit cards were all linked through PayPal. They contacted all the banks for her and got all the charges reversed.

Re:

[Surt]

Good for them if they've changed ... of course, the problem is that once you have a reputation ...

Re:

[Anachragnome]

"Full disclosure, I'm a PayPal engineer."

"My MOTHER got caught in a phishing scheme. Her bank account and credit cards were all linked through PayPal. They contacted all the banks for her and got all the charges reversed."

Nice try. Next!

Re:

[Enderandrew]

I don't appreciate being called a liar. I've used one handle online my entire life and hide basically nothing. I back up my words and don't try to hide behind any anonymity.

Do you doubt that I work for PayPal, or that my mother fell for a phishing scheme? Both I'd be happy to prove to you.

Re:

[Anachragnome]

"I don't appreciate being called a liar."

And I don't appreciate you saying I called you a liar. I didn't. I was merely suggesting your mother received special consideration because you work for the company--special consideration that the rest of us do not receive.

Re:

[Enderandrew]

I've only been with PayPal for 8 months. She got caught in a phishing scheme years ago. I had no influence on the events. PayPal contacted the banks that handled her checking account and credit cards, and had all the charges reversed in 3 days.

Their fraud policies are one Google search away.

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/Marketing/securitycenter/buy/Protection-outside [paypal.com]

The OP suggested they are evil because they don't provide fraud protection. They do, and have for years. They also actively go

Re:

[Kalriath]

But yet, they do jack shit-all to protect sellers who happen to provide services or digital products. I got a chargeback from my payment processor (I use one solely to insulate me from the craptasticness of Paypal) and when I queried them on it they said "Paypal provided one option - accept the chargeback". And that was via Paypal dispute centre. No, Paypal can suck it. It's a terrible platform for selling anything.

Re:Zynga are evil

[Enderandrew]

So you didn't go through PayPal, and your payment processor didn't fight to protect you, so that is PayPal's fault?

PayPal and eBay are linked at the hip. eBay makes their money off sellers, but if buyers aren't happy, then it is hard to sell anything.

PayPal and eBay had tried to straddle a line of making sellers happy, and making buyers happy. They lean back and forth across that line.

I can tell you this. We spend a fortune on customer service centers. We go nuts going over customer service metrics, and we're investing even more. It is a huge focus within the company, to try and keep everyone happy. I work in IT, don't talk to customers, and I see get emails about verbatim comments from our customers.

We also ask third party companies to gather information and tell us how we're doing when it comes to customer service.

I can also tell you that when there is a dispute, PayPal doesn't just simply tell sellers to fuck off. We have groups that just focus on dispute resolution.

Re:

[Anachragnome]

I have to admit you made my day with the link in your signature.

Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed and the like all categorized under "Stalk Me"?

Priceless.

Re:

[IANAAC]

I use Paypal to accept payment for work I've done with agencies/entities located abroad. I've received approx. 1/3 - 1/2 of my yearly income through them for the last 3 years or so.

I can truthfully say that I've never had any trouble with them as a way to collect payments.

Actually, I've also used them to make payments for some purchases, but only through their credit card (I have a business credit card issued by them). I imagine I would have no trouble recovering money if there were a dispute though, as

Re:

[__aailob1448]

It was completely intentional. Hands off my dramatic license!

Don't be evil

[Adrian Lopez]

It would seem that "don't be evil" doesn't include not doing business with the likes of this asshole [techcrunch.com].

Just what we do not need, more Farmville

[Tisha_AH]

What a deal, the creators of Farmville and Mafia Wars, two games that would be a better fit for the early 90's.

There are some funny YouTube videos on both of those games.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odBDAcOEKuI [youtube.com]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kNjC50BzB0&feature=channel [youtube.com]

Re:

[Surt]

Root canal!

We can use some Google influence in gaming

[unity100]

since advent of cds and industrialization of gaming, games increasingly became brutal capitalism products, purely made to make the maximum profit over them without paying much attention to the gamers' desires. all games, gaming studios either have gone the way of becoming extremely bloated, little gameplay - max visuals, max gore/extremism range, or gone the way of maximum simplicity, minimum effort way. all are done to target the general populations most exploitable characteristics to just make the box sell. rest is not that important. and the studios who were doing real games have either had to go the same way, or got bought by conglomerates and made to choose the same way.

thus some google influence may be good in this sector. we need more gameplay, more fun, entertainment in games.

How is it that nobody has mentioned?

[drachenstern]

How is it that nobody has mentioned that this is just the sort of thing to help launch Google Me? Google needs someone on their social network to bring people over, and as many people as like playing these social games, it won't be that hard to get people onto Google Me from using this.

So between Zynga leaving Facebook but people loving the games and people being upset with Facebook, now's the perfect time for Google to make deals to get people onto their social network.

Re:Another Yahoo?

[Seth Kriticos]

Yahoo!'s (and most of the other search engines) problems was, that they tried to promote most of the auxiliary services through the main site. Though Yahoo! isn't exactly loosing, they just did not get the majority of the search market, but for instance in Japan they are highly popular.. they are also the forth most visited site on the Internet [alexa.com], I wouldn't call that exactly loosing.

Google is doing a lot of stuff too, but most of it is standing alone (i.e. youtube) and is self-promoting.

They could clean up the start page a bit (or at least make it more customizable), but generally they are doing search + ads as primary business and the other stuff is loosely connected.

As for checkout.. well, PayPal was the first major popular global Internet payment option, but they are causing a lot of grief lately and will loose importance.

What will succeed them? My best bet is Amazon Payments [amazon.com], as they have attractive payment conditions (the nearest I have seen so far to micro-payments) and they have an established customer base with access to bank account data and _some_ trust of the users.

Google has no business where people regularly spend money from their account. They will have a hard time to make people set up payment account on their site, but it's not impossible.

Re:

[icebraining]

They could clean up the start page a bit (or at least make it more customizable)

Google.com is very clean, especially until you move your mouse. And they have a customizable start page, it's called iGoogle. I don't use it, though.

Re:

[dbcad7]

I have used Google Checkout to purchase things for my Android phone.. and have made some other online purchases with them.. Paypal has screwed up 2 out of the 4 times I have used them.. that's not a lot you say, but when something doesn't work from the getgo, and deals with money.. not many chances are given.. If given a choice for a purchase, I would take Checkout over Paypal because thus far their failure rate is 0. The majority of my purchases don't usually require either of them.

An old adage comes to mind

[Overzeetop]

The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

Re:

[hedwards]

I wouldn't say that. Personally I do try to stay away from them wherever possible, but it's not because of the fees. Anytime you use credit or debit, the processor gets a chunk of the transaction to pay for the service. What's really nice about Paypal is that there's some choice as to who pays it. But on the flip side, there's a lot of behaviors which are obnoxious to say the least. Like freezing money in accounts for random reasons and refusing to give it back.

Re:

[tomhudson]

So THATS why I get a weird feeling between my legs when I play Mafia Wars or FarmVille

That's just them pulling your private information from every source they can - they want your DNA. They say that they'll collect as much as they can in their privacy policy [zynga.com]

We may use information about you that we collect from other sources, including but not limited to newspapers and Internet sources such as blogs, instant messaging services, Zynga games and other users of Zynga, to supplement your profile.

This is in

Re:

[n0nsensical]

Zynga is a scary place full of scary code

Re:

[gmuslera]

Take this current Google Game [google.com]. Is not very social, you don't interact with anyone else playing it, don't push anyone to measure how can play compared to you. Maybe Farmville could be seen more as viral gaming than social gaming, but still is just another way of being social.