There has been increasing buzz lately over Google's potential challenge in the social networking sphere, with rumors of a Google Me in the works, and the Slide acquisition only feeds the flames.

For Google, the web is about people, and we're working to develop open, transparent and interesting (and fun!) ways to allow our users to take full advantage of how technology can bring them closer to friends and family and provide useful information just for them. 

Slide has already created compelling social experiences for tens of millions of people across many platforms, and we've already built strong social elements into products like Gmail, Docs, Blogger, Picasa and YouTube. As the Slide team joins Google, we'll be investing even more to make Google services socially aware and expand these capabilities for our users across the web.

A similar statement is provided on Slide, saying that "this is a tremendous opportunity for the two companies to come together to change the way people socialize on the web".

If Google is working to make a Facebook alternative, as so many have suggested, then we can only expect to see a wide integration among its many products, as indicated in today's release. While little detail is offered, that seems to be the take-away from today's announcement - Google will go social across its many services, not just one. Hopefully this time, however, it takes into consideration those privacy concerns and does some testing, lest we have another Buzz launch on our hands.

Slide's VP of strategy and business development, Keith Rabois has confirmed that the company will concentrate on its current applications on Facebook instead of releasing new apps. This seems to be a smart move from the company since Facebook's upcoming overhaul will make things harder for developers to not only get their apps to Facebook users, but also to grow their apps. While Sillicon Alley Insider feels this means the end is near for the Facebook app "landgrab", we feel that Slide may simply be adapting to future conditions of Facebook's new platform until all the kinks are sorted out. On the other hand, this is ultimately good news to new developers entering the Facebook app arena.

The Consequences

What happens if Slide doesn't release another app? If their current applications slow down in growth, this could be a devastating move for the company on Facebook. The move is a smart one for now. They are well established on Facebook with plenty of apps to focus on. Focusing on their current products for now is the best thing the company could do to secure their place until the new overhaul is released and properly tested. However, we wouldn't advise Slide to refrain from releasing apps ever again for Facebook and we would warn them not to wait too long before releasing their next app.