http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/ ... ogle-valve
I'd say the notion of Google wanting Steam has some serious credibility, although I'm definitely going to need corroboration from other sites before I believe it. Steam is indeed a fantastic system, and definitely the best in its field at doing what it does — especially now it has the tight social networking integration of Steam Community.
The downside I guess is that Google will inevitably want something out of it. Hopefully that doesn't eventually translate to ads.
I was also kind of looking forward to seeing Valve become a serious publishing heavyweight, which I think is very possible considering their current momentum. If this deal does turn out to exist, I hope it doesn't compromise that.