Sure, Google is the most popular search engine on the web; however, when you're talking about actual numbers of visitors, social networking giant Facebook far exceeds Google in popularity with 500 million unique users. And that's a figure that is growing every day.

But Google isn't giving up the fight quite yet; they know all about the growing importance of social media networks and is working hard at becoming a presence in that sector, even as news of their decision to shut down their year-old social media experiment Wave hits the streets.

Offsetting the announcement of Wave's failure is Google's biggest move into online gaming: they have reportedly agreed to pay $182 million to acquire social game developer Slide. Slide has developed a number of Facebook games, though none of them has really managed to be a runaway success yet.

Google knows it has to be proactive if it is to capture a greater online audience, so the company is in talks with various developers and gaming companies like Electronic Arts and Game Network, and may be joining the online gaming business sooner rather than later. Google will be focusing on social gaming that will rival those games featured on Facebook and attempt to draw more visitors to its website; thus challenging Facebook's numbers in internet traffic.

The search engine company is already profiting from Facebook's gaming success, as it recently invested upwards of $200 million on gaming company Zynga, developer of web phenomenons Farmville and Mafia Wars. The hopes are that players will be drawn to play these games, not by having to log onto Facebook, but by doing so through Google. Naturally, this will increase the number of visitors for the search engine giant.

With their entry into the social media gaming market coupled with recent legislation that will possible legalize and regulate online gambling in the U.S., can a symbiotic relationship between Google and an established online gambling presence (Party Gaming anyone?) be far behind?

Tags: Google, Facebook, PartyGaming