Google in the market to buy Facebook

For all of you at University or College it is more likely than not that you will have come across social networking website Facebook – now it is rumoured that Google could be looking to make a $2 billion dollar move to buy out the privately owned company.

Although there is no official word Facebook, recently turned down a $750 million dollar offer. Senior industry executives claim that they are looking for an offer in the region of $2 billion. This coincides with Google making moves to raise $2.1 billion, which would surely be overkill for maintenance and repairs of the world's leading search engine. Now business sites are piecing the two together and see a Google ‘buyout’ on the horizon.

With Google’s unopposed rise to position of ‘steward of the internet’ it is hard to see who can stand in their way when even Microsoft doesn’t seem to have an answer. The addition of Facebook to Google’s ranks isn’t too surprising. It seems Google aren’t content with saturating every aspect of our internet lifestyle and would now like to become part of our social lives as well.

Facebook's major competitor is MySpace, which was bought by Rupert Murdoch last year for just under $1 bn.

All those looking forward to the ‘Facebook’ toolbar in the next incarnation of Google Firefox, stand up now. I’m just off to log into my Gmail account so I can join in the trend and sign away my life and everything I own to Google before it’s too late.

Are Google gaining a dangerous monopoly over internet tools? Let us know your views in the forums.