It is being reported that Go0gle’s planned social networking initiative Google Me is to be delayed until the Spring of next year.

It had been expected that Google Me would have been unveiled before the end of the year and in September Google CEO Eric Schmidt said that its much talked of social networking plans would be unveiled in the autumn.

It has been referred to as Google’s Facebook killer, but Schmidt said that this description was wide of the mark.

Last night Mashable reported that Google’s social networking initiative “is experiencing delays that have pushed back the launch”.

It says that Google Me, or whatever name Google has given the product, will debut in March or April.

It has been suggested that Google’s senior management have been pre-occupied with negotiating the acquisition of deals website Groupon. Yesterday it was being  reported that Google had cut a $2.5bn deal to buy Groupon, but there is still no confirmation of this.

The Google Me project is a closely guarded, but quite real, industry secret. It is being headed up by Google’s VP of engineering Vic Gundotra.

A spokeswoman said for Google yesterday that “we have already confirmed that we are focused on incorporating social elements across Google, but we have nothing new to announce at this time”.

The launch delay of Google Me follows two other Google social networking oriented debacles. Firstly the abandoned Google Wave project and then Google Buzz, which has also sunk into irrelevance.