Leading figures from the top echelons of social media have backed up rumours that Google has been building a head on, social networking challenge to Facebook.  Digg founder Kevin Rose has already confirmed speculation the search behemoth was working on ‘Google Me’, touted by some as ‘the Facebook killer’.

Facebook chief technical officer, Adam D’Angelo, also said it was true: “This is not a rumor. This is a real project. There are a large number of people working on it. I am completely confident about this”.  He added the project would be built on Google Buzz. “They realized that Buzz wasn’t enough and that they need to build out a full, first-class social network. They are modeling it off of Facebook.” (CNN 12/7)
So is it real?

The Blog Herald (13/7) has added fuel to the fire with news that a Google research team has been charting social networking functions, posting their findings on SlideShare.  One of the key areas it was reported to be working on was better organisation of a ‘group of friends’ to separate out work and home life with limits on the information seen by colleagues.

TechCrunch (10/7) also reported that Google has invested up to $200m in Zynga, the online social games maker of ‘FarmVille’ and ‘Mafia Wars’.  It was a highly strategic deal that gave Google the capability to build a true social graph as gamers log into Google to play.   This raised the next question – if Google Me was a reality would Zynga pull its games from Facebook?

The internet is buzzing with rumours but we’ll have to sit it out with the rest of the blogosphere until an official announcement.  It’s all pretty much guess work at the moment.  But the consensus is the rumours are real and backed by very credible sources.