There is no questioning Google’s eagerness to catapult into the social networking arena. It has just pulled out its wallet to add another company to its growing social portfolio.
Angstro describes itself as an aggregator of content across “professional networks,” combing through some of the hottest online properties to provide information that it relevant to individual users.
Google’s attempt at competing against Facebook saw very little traction at the launch of Google Buzz. It generated more controversy than anything over a flummoxing disregard for user privacy (even more so than Facebook, if you can believe it).
Its recent acquisitions seem to suggest the online giant is hard at work behind-the-scenes to build something completely unique and different from Facebook. And it’s obvious Google is looking specifically at bringing social games to its arsenal, building from the ground up with virtually no experience in the video game industry.
It seems Google was only really interested in one person at Angstro: Rohit Khare, co-founder. Although it’s not exactly a massive layoff of the social start-up. A farewell picture posted on Angstro’s website shows just three members of the team.
Fellow co-founder “Salim and I would like to thank everyone who was part of the adventure — not least, the thousands of users and beta testers who helped define our products and inspired our whole team,” wrote Khale in a blog post.
In the span of just a few months, Google has bought out online social startups Slide, Aardvark, Jambool, and Jaiku. It is also reportedly investing heavily in the undisputed leader of social gaming, Zynga. However, plans about its social networking future remain a closely guarded secret.
