Google acquires LabPixies

Google loves to build platforms on which programs run--Android, App Engine, iGoogle, and in the biggest picture, the Web itself. But platforms are of no use, and aren't much fun, without applications on top, so Google often also kick-starts development with applications of its own.Now it appears Google is interested in boosting development in a variety of casual gaming and entertainment areas with the acquisition of LabPixies, announced late Monday. The company offers a collection of games and lightweight utilities that run on iGoogle, Google's customizable home page, and on the iPhone and Android phones.iGoogle uses the OpenSocial foundation for applications. That's also used by Yahoo, Hi5, MySpace, and Orkut, meaning that OpenSocial gadgets will run on all those social-networking services. LabPixies also develops applications that run on Facebook's platform. Google launched iGoogle in 2005 and has been gradually improving it since then.

Image Courtesy:http://cdn.labpixies.com/images/404_image.png