The bandwagon story of the day is Google looking into creating a "Facebook competitor" by talking with popular online gaming companies (Wall Street Journal). That's funny, I thought Facebook was a social networking site and not a gaming company. Shows you what I know.

That's also not to mention that Google has already tried to "do" social networking, but looks to be failing miserably with Buzz.

The spin in the Wall Street Journal is that by talking to social gaming companies like Zynga, Google is contemplating creating an alternative to Facebook, where many of the social gaming companies are growing like weeds (e.g. "Scott has acquired a semi-automatic weapon to blow you away in Mafia Wars!").

As they put it:

"Social games are less complex than those played on consoles like Microsoft's Xbox 360 or Sony PlayStation 3. Individuals use the games to interact with online friends in their networks. The developers make money through advertising and by offering users a way to pay for virtual goods in their games that could, for example, help them manage a virtual farm or defeat rival mobsters."

Thanks for dumbing it down for me, WSJ. This story is probably going to end up having a multifaceted ending that doesn't involve one social networking platform or one gaming company. But Google might start by buying Zynga. That's my take, anyway.

What else is happening in the news flow:

• AT&T to become 'Premier" Windows Phone 7 Vendor (PCWorld). Isn't that kind of like getting court-side seats to see the Golden State Warriors?
• Headline of the day: "The Google Sewage Factory..." (SearchEngineLand). Love this. Great story on how Google still has problems filtering the commercial BS from the real news.
• Adobe buys Day Software for $240 million (ZDNet). Hey, $240M isn't bad for 2010.
• Wikileaks has no idea where the leaked U.S. Army intelligence documents came from (AP via Physorg.com). This will be a fascinating media, legal, and Internet story that will define things for years to come.
• Jim Rogers calls CNBC a "PR Agency" (Busienss Insider). The best thing about it? He said it on CNBC.
• The "Gulf oil disappearing" meme is spreading (New York Times). What happeneed to all those "giant frozen blob and lethal global methane cloud" stories?
• Second favorite headline of the day: The Boss Shouldn't Have Promoted His Sons (Bloomberg Businessweek). Good read. Another reason why I don't work with my brother. Oh wait, I don't have a brother.
• If everything is now cool in Euro-banking world, why does Euribor keep creeping up? (Business Insider).
• Tobacco funds shrink as obesity fight intensifies (New York Times). The government wants you to either quit smoking or stop overeating, but not both.
• Bill Gross says we may be "flushing money down an economic toilet" (Bloomberg). Well put.