Google Developing Social Gaming Platform to Rival Facebook

Google is in talks with developers to create a social gaming platform in an attempt to capture users and ad dollars from Facebook.  Social gaming is on the rise, as is seen with Zynga's Farmville boasting 60 million active monthly users, and big players a looking to tap into this new trend.  Many are seeing social gaming as a new platform to reach an even more deeply fragmented audience, with users participating in these games from a multitude of devices and new destinations that keeping popping up in the digital space. 

What is pulling people towards these social games, like Farmville and Diner Dash?  Their level of simplicity.  Unlike their closet competitors, console games such as Sony's Playstation or Nintendo Wii, these games are less complex, don't require a specific device or destination to play it with, and they allow users to interact with their friends online.  Microsofts' Xbox 360 does allow for users to engage with other players with its Xbox Live platform, however it revenues go straight back to Microsoft for the service.  Social gaming has opened up a new marketplace where users can pay for virtual goods to be used in the games as well as created another medium for advertiser's to work with.

Will Google's move be a game-changer in social networking? Will it become a rival Facebook or just another fragmentation in the social media landscape?

The iAd: Another "i" from Apple

As chatter builds around the iPad as April 3rd quickly approached, another "i" has been announced by Steve Jobs -- The iAd.  The iAd, to be unleashed upon advertisers on April 7th, will be a personalized, mobile advertising system and his been described as "extraordinary"and "our next big thing" by head of Apple's Jobs.

No really details have been released, but it is speculated to utilize Apple's new acquired mobile ad unit, Quattro.  It will be another battlefield for Google and Apple to wage war, since Google recently agreed to buy AdMob.  They are taking the war to Madison Advertisers, and who ever makes the most ad dollars wins.

Mobile advertising is seen as the new vehicle through which advertisers can create innovative and engaging advertisements to recapture an audience that is constantly on the go.  Apple has captivated advertisers with the App Store and ability to build branded apps that consumers actively seek out, and is presenting them with a new opportunity for limitless interactive and immersive ad spaces within e-publications, such as those to be released by The Wall Street Journal and Sports Illustrated, to be offered on the new "tablet" device.  

It is believed advertisers will be able to "hypertarget" consumers "based on their geographic proximity", which will open up new opportunities to location-based advertising.  The media world will be sitting by eagerly waiting to witness the unveiling of Apple's mobile ad platform.  It has a great deal of potential, but will advertisers, as well as consumers, take the bait.  As of last week, only 200,000 iPad's were pre-ordered, higher than initial iPhone purchases, but is this audience size worth the high price of ad space?