Google has just acquired another social application company named Slide, in an effort to make Google services socially aware.

Google announced the acquisition in an official blog post published earlier today. It’s interesting to note that Google is slowly expanding the company’s reach on “Social gaming” and ways people make fun on the internet. Earlier this year, Google invested in another company called Zynga which will lay the foundation of Google Games, expected to launch at the end of 2010.

The official blog post says that Google is working on open and transparent ways to allow the users take advantage of the technology which in turn helps them stay connected with family members and friends. With Slide, Google expects to make it’s services more socially aware. Long story short, Google is preparing to take a share in the social gaming sector which is currently dominated by Facebook, thanks to all the interactive and funny games Facebook has.

Coming back to Slide, the company started as a simple photo sharing website back in 2004(read wikipedia refrence). Initially, the startup tried to engage the Myspace audience by letting the users insert slide shows into Myspace pages. Realizing the power and reach of Facebook, the company diversified and started focusing on Facebook apps – some of the very popular being Superpoke and FunSpace.

The company’s   founder Max Levchin along with his team of developers will be soon joining the Google camp to integrate Slide with other Google services. Please note that Max is also one of the co founders of Paypal.

Techcrunch reports that along with $182 million purchase price, Google has also agreed to pay an additional $46 million for employee retention bonuses.