Just because it’s fun to speculate about such things — and there’s a history here — I’m repeating hearsay. SiliconBeat discusses an unsubstantiated rumor about a possible Google acquisition of now tainted "social networking" (read: dating) site Friendster.

Back in 2003 Google reportedly made an offer for Friendster (in the $30 million range — also unsubstantiated). Friendster, riding high at the time, spurned the offer, according to hearsay.

Yahoo! has been gobbling up every new social/"Web 2.0" site in sight. But Google has made few forays into this realm. It’s own Orkut has enjoyed limited success.

Highly unlikely, but we’ll see what happens. And, by the way, "googster.com" is taken.

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One longtime "industry observer" I casually mentioned this to suggested that such rumors are usually started by the companies seeking to be acquired themselves as a last-ditch effort to create buzz.