Google Operating System has used an interesting posting on MacForums to piece together what it thinks is an open call for Arizona State students to test out a virtual social network for Google Earth. While far from a slam-dunk rumor, Google Operating System rightly notes Google’s strong ties with Arizona state both past and present, so it’s not completely out of left-field that this could be a Google project – especially given the rumors that started circulating months ago about Google thinking about such a service.

Certainly it’d be kind of cool if you had a Google Network profile with a ‘Meet Me in Google Earth’ button on it that was active when you were using Google Earth. Clicking on it would launch Google Earth on that person’s computer and they would be taken to the area you were virtually and see an avatar representation of you.

I think this is already a half-dozen or so pretty big rumors/stories in the past week about Google in the social networking sphere. Facebook better watch out – I would say the same for MySpace, but they’re already too busy watching out for Facebook.