Google’s stated ambitions to take on Facebook on the social media front have apparently seen the search giant take over Jambool – who produce the Social Gold payment product which lets other sites build virtual-currency infrastructures in games and other applications – for about $70 million (around €53 million).

Vikas Gupta, co-founder of Jambool, has some pretty interesting views on virtual currency.

This follows last week’s purchase of social-app manufacturer Slide for around $230 million.

Social Gold was one of a number of virtual-currency start-ups that made hay in the time in between the launch of Facebook’s developer platform and the company’s unveiling of its own transaction system, Facebook Credits.

Founded by Amazon veterans Vikas Gupta and Reza Hussein, the company has raised $6 million in funding before now, and it should be noted that the former has some pretty strong views on the merits of Facebook Credits, so he should be a motivated ally if Google choose to use him.

A Cnet blog on the matter noted that as Facebook expands its Credits system (by attracting the “most powerful social-game manufacturers” to its developer platform) it is potentially crushing a number of third-party virtual-currency providers in the process. Jambool however, seems to have found its saviour in Google (though neither company has officially confirmed the deal) and exciting times may well lie ahead for both parties.

As Cnet points out, “Google runs its own PayPal-like transaction platform, Google Checkout, and may have been looking for a virtual-currency system to complement it. The tech giant, in the midst of cobbling together a social-media arsenal that won’t flop like several of its past social-media projects have, is rumored to be fine-tuning that strategy toward social gaming, one of the biggest runaway successes to emerge on Facebook. It’s invested a hefty amount in Zynga, the biggest social-gaming company, and may or may not be working on a full-fledged gaming product of its own.”

Google of course, don’t want to mirror Facebook, but thanks to these purchases the social product they will eventually offer down the line is looking stronger all the time.