February 24, 2010 by James Oliver
Yes you read the headline correctly, Internet search engine giants Google have snapped up Aardvark. Not in the way that you may think though, they have not purchased a nocturnal mammal as an office pet. I’m talking of course about the social-search provider.
This comes hot on the heels of Google’s announcement of their ‘Buzz’ feature for G-mail earlier in the week. Buzz, introduced by Google to take on social networking giant Twitter, has not been received with much warmth by users as Google chose to make the default setting reveal all followers and their e-mail addresses. So it would appear that although people like to ‘follow’ the status of their friends they do not like to know that they are doing so.
The acquisition of Aardvark is set to improve the Google Buzz service, the search engine works by scanning the profiles of people that the user has already selected as friends and trying to match the knowledge or general interests of those people with a question or query.
For example, if I was to ask “Where are the best places to go out in the West End?” where my friends in Manchester may not know this my friends in London are more likely to be able to give me an answer. During the setup process Aardvark allow users to choose the exact kinds of topic that you do not mind be questioned on.
It would appear to be quite a useful tool and will add a different dimension to the Google Buzz service by connecting friends of friends in the hope of producing more useful and relevant information.
Google have declined to divulge exactly how much the deal for Aardvark set them back but it is believed to be in the region of $50 million.
The service is run by former Google employees and the deal is rumoured to be finalized in the coming days.
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