"Google Plus, the ambitious company-wide social network launched late last month, was reportedly built in secret over an extended period of time by scores of engineers and social software designers brought into the company through a campaign of heavy hiring.

The scope of Plus's ambition is far from fully realized, though, and apparently the expansion of the team isn't complete yet either. This morning a well-backed little startup called The Fridge announced that it has been acquired by Google and will close its group sharing app up to work on something similar at Plus. It was the second little startup like it to be acquired by Google in the last two days: yesterday YCombinator alum Scoopler/Just Spotted announced the same thing.

Did these little startups show promise and get multi-million dollar signing bonuses, effectively, as acquisition/hires? Or did they see the successful launch of Google Plus as writing on the wall: that the real time and group sharing market has now matured enough that it's time for anyone small to team up with a giant if they are going to survive? Maybe they began building a year ago with insiders' knowledge that flipping to Google would become an increasingly viable strategy."

Source:ReadWriteWeb