Confirming reports that it is venturing into the social media arena, Google Friday disclosed that it has acquired Slide – a San Francisco-based social networking and gaming company which was founded by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin in 2005.

Though there have been speculations that Google is building a gaming service, especially after reports that the company had made a substantial investment in the Farmville-maker Zynga, the acquisition of Slide – which reportedly is $228 million deal - indicates that Google’s strategy probably goes much beyond games alone.

Talking about the Slide acquisition in a post on Google’s official blog, the company’s engineering director David Glazer said: “We're working to develop open, transparent and interesting ways to allow our users to take full advantage of how technology can bring them closer to friends and family and provide useful information just for them.”

Slide, which is basically a media company, develops social media-specific games, widgets, and applications. The company has made viral applications like FunSpace and Top Friends on Facebook; FunPix and Slideshow on MySpace; and has developed a number of games and widgets for practically all social networks, even Friendster.

With the terms of the acquisition revealing that the Slide employees will be joining Google, Levchin said that Google’s commitment to building new, open and better ways for people to connect with others will help Slide create some “awesome new social experiences” at Google.