Google Buys SocialDeck As Social Media Spending Spree Continues

Social Deck, which makes social games that users play with friends on their smartphones or via Facebook, is the newest addition to Google's arsenal of social networking tools to help it take on Facebook when it finally pulls the trigger on its rumored Google Me service.

"We're super excited to announce that someone found our social games as fun as you have - in this case that 'someone' is Google. SocialDeck has been acquired and we've joined the Google team," SocialDeck wrote in a letter on the front page of its Web site.

Founded in 2008, SocialDeck has launched several game titles for the Apple iPhone, BlackBerry smarpthones and Facebook using its social gaming platform technology, which enables simultaneous game play across multiple mobile devices and social networks.

"We were very impressed with the team's talent as well as the technically advanced platform engaging mobile experiences they've built," Google said in a statement, according to a Reuters report.

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Google's acquisition of Toronto-based SocialDeck comes as the Mountain View, Calif.-based company continues to bulk up its social media capabilities through a string of acquisitions.

Last week, Google purchased Angstro, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based service that presents data on friends and contacts based their statuses on social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media platforms.

The Angstro buy followed a hot streak of social media acquisitions for Google, during which Google acquired Like.com, a visual search engine and online retailer; Google bought Slide Inc., which develops social networking entertainment applications; and Google scooped up Jambool, maker of a virtual currency platform.

Google's acquisition of SocialDeck brings Google's total number of acquisitions for 2010 to around 20. By many accounts, Google's August spending spree is the company's bid to bulk up its social networking and gaming capabilities as it readies its own service to take on Facebook, dubbed Google Me.