Is Google gearing up to wage war on Facebook and Myspace?

Buried under several settings and account menus within Google's products is the ability to create a "Google Profile".  Up until now, the extent of your Google existence was your status message on Gmail and the various pieces of content that you've uploaded to Google's products, such as Picassa and YouTube.  While this may have been out for a while, this is the first I'm seeing on this.  In the explanation of Profiles (http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=97703): "A Google profile is simply how you present yourself on Google products to other Google users."  From your profile, you can:

1. Send and Receive messages without revealing your email address
2. Share photos on your profile
3. Create a page about you
4. Add contact information
5. Show your location

I don't know about you, but this sounds a lot like what Facebook does, doesn't it?  Facebook started essentially as a page that defined who you are, and then developed modules to better define yourself through pictures, events, and groups.  Google, on the otherhand, is starting with several products that define you, and creating a profile to tie these products together to define who you 

are.  Starting with Picassa pictures and Maps location for now, just wait until Google starts to allow users to integrate YouTube, Blogger, Calendar, Docs, Finance, and more into their profiles.  Just thinking about how many Google products I already actively use, and Google's initiatives with OpenSocial, Facebook may be in store for a war to dominate the social web.

Google to buy Twitter?

While reports have indicated preliminary talks, I think people's imaginations have run wild with this one and have made it a far bigger issue than it really is at this point.  To use a sports analogy, it would be like a team acquiring an all-star to add to their roster.  Given Google's track record, it would seem that their strategy is more in line with drafting a rookie (read: new technology) with high potential and developing it within its system.  However, this doesn't mean that this isn't a good idea.  Here are some random thoughts if this were actually to go through:

1. Twitter would benefit from the beefier Google infrastructure => extinction of the Fail Whale.
2. Google would gain a larger foothold in the social space and gain more ammunition for its war against Microsoft.
3. Twitter would gain resource support against Facebook's attempts to become more like Twitter.
4. There would be a plethora of opportunities for integration between Google's Mail, Calendar, Reader, etc. with Twitter's information stream.

While I think this will eventually make it into the same rumor bucket as when Google were supposedly buying Digg, you never know what can happen.  Just look at the New York Yankees and the Boston Celtics.