Google comments on Facebook Home: NBD

Here’s Google’s statement on the Facebook Home overlay:

“The Android platform has spurred the development of hundreds of different types of devices. This latest collaboration demonstrates the openness and flexibility that has made Android so popular. And it’s a win for users who want a customized Facebook experience from Google Play — the heart of the Android ecosystem — along with their favorite Google services like Gmail, Search, and Google Maps.”

Does Google want this? No, they do not. But Mountain View lets (encourages?) their OEMs and carriers to mess with the pure Android experience, so they have to let Facebook do it too if customers so desire. And, why not? In the most recent versions of Jellybean, you can make Google Currents your lock screen. OEMs have long had access to the way your home screen looks. Why shouldn’t other vendors have access to these functions?

The real question is: what happens in the unlikely event that this takes off and people find value in Facebook’s Home? You know Facebook is going to continue to push Google out of the way and people will use Google services less and less, which is the whole point of Android.

I imagine Google will come up with some other Home-type of function with a lot more Now and + integration than currently exists…one that would delete the Facebook Home in the install process. This of course will be bundled with every Gmail, Maps, Yahoo, Plus, and Talk update so that it is almost impossible not to install.

Get the popcorn ready. (Image via Fortune.com)