Google is using its search riches to attack another industry: Facebook credits

Google is using its massive search advertising business to subsidize an attack on yet another industry: Facebook credits, which are largely used to fund social games.

As Dean Takahashi reports for VentureBeat, Google’s new Google+ social gaming platform is only going to take a 5% commission for in-game transactions, versus Facebook’s 30% commission. The goal, presumably, is to draw gamers and developers away from Facebook, and to force Facebook to cut its commission and profitability.

This is similar to how Google has given away Android for free to disrupt Apple and Microsoft, Google Docs and Apps to disrupt Microsoft, etc. And it’s more reason for Facebook to put its weight behind Bing — today’s main challenger to Google’s search business — or potentially develop its own search engine.

Related: Facebook and Microsoft inch closer together with Skype