Google's already in that space, they are so ubiquitous with almost anything. Take Google analytics, that's in probably 50% of the web. Google search is default

Google's already in that space, they are so ubiquitous with almost anything. Take Google analytics, that's in probably 50% of the web. Google search is default in any browser that is not IE. Take gmail, Google calendar, Google docs, the level of human interaction that is made through their servers is second to none. They just don't have a major stake in "social", but they do, through search, through crawling, etc. And with the current privacy and sharing status (that is, lack of), they have a lot of access to a lot of user details. The only thing a social network has over Google is the ability to perform application-level data cross-referencing, and Google wants a hold in that. Probably before the bubble bursts and those details get lost, or sold, or leaked, or whatever.