Google+ Set to Launch Angry Birds to Counter Facebook Games? [Video]

Search engine giant Google has added online games to its newest social networking service Google+, and one of them may be Rovio’s most popular game, Angry Birds.

Facebook has countered the challenge by upgrading its own gaming system by adding feeds or tickers that will let the user know about the whereabouts of his friends and find out what games they are playing currently.

Today we’re adding games to Google+. With the Google+ project, we want to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to the web. But sharing is about more than just conversations,” said Vic Gundotra, Senior Vice President, Engineering, Google, in Google’s official blog. “The experiences we have together are just as important to our relationships. We want to make playing games online just as fun, and just as meaningful, as playing in real life.”

The Google+ games will give full control to the user and also let him share the experience with his Google+ buddies. They can also be removed and brought back according to the user’s wish.

“When you’re ready to play, the Games page is waiting—click the games button at the top of your stream. You can see the latest game updates from your circles, browse the invites you’ve received and check out games that people you know have played recently,” Gundotra added. “The Games page is also where your game accomplishments will appear. So you can comfortably share your latest high score—your circles will only see the updates when they’re interested in playing games too.”

Facebook will look to counter the latest threat from Google as soon as possible and has already taken the first step in its defense.

“When you're playing games, you'll now see a separate stream of your friends' game activity, scores and achievements in a ticker. The best way to find new games is through friends, and now you'll have more opportunities to see what they're playing,” said Jared Morgenstern, Facebook Ninja, CEO and Co-Founder, in Facebook’s official blog.

The inclusion of Angry Birds, which is one of the most popular games on the planet in Google+ games may turn out to be a defining factor in the Google+ vs. Facebook battle.

Angry Birds has been praised for its successful combination of addictive gameplay, comical style, and low price. Its popularity led to versions of Angry Birds being created for personal computers and gaming consoles.

With a combined 300 million downloads across all platforms and including both regular and special editions, the game has been called "one of the most popular mainstream games out right now", "one of the great runaway hits of 2010", and "the largest mobile app success the world has seen so far."