More Google news, this time with a Canadian connection. Turns out Google just bought Adscape Media for US$23 million. Now headquarted in San Francisco, the company was founded in Ottawa and its R&D and design operations remain in the capital.

Google’s angle? Like Microsoft, its sees online gaming as a largely untapped venue for marketing and Adscape has developed technology to serve up advertising in online games and virtual worlds such as World of Warcraft and Second Life. Adscape’s software reportedly offers “plot/storyline” integration and enables two-way communication between players and advertisers via text, audio, video, SMS, and email. The Mercury News story had this additional tid bit:

The potential deal fuels speculation that Google is building a virtual world game, much like Linden Labs’ Second Life, using its Google Earth product as a backbone. Last April, the company purchased SketchUp, which makes software that allows people to create three-dimensional models.