Does Google really see Facebook as a threat? Maybe they could also fund Diaspora like they helped Mozilla. And it seems to me their "big splash" launches of late (App Engine, Docs, Wave, Buzz, checkout) end up underwhelming maybe because of the hype. Their successes (Gmail, maps, text ads) in my perception were more like "soft" launches in which they let the blogosphere and geeks in general do their promoting for them.