Google’s war scale efforts to overpower fast-moving rivals such as Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. in the social networking business got a boost with the acquisition of social-search start-up Aardvark.
Founded in 2007 by ex-Google employees – Max Ventilla Nathan Stroll, Aardvark seeks answers sent directly from searcher’s friends to those who are online at the time and would likely have an answer, a kind of Ask-A-Friend service.
Earlier this week Google launched ‘Buzz’, on its widely used Gmail, service that provides a ‘stream’ of friends’ updates and photos from sites such as Twitter and Flickr, that is posted within people’s Gmail application.
The acquisition of Aardvark’s friends-based Q&A technology will complement Buzz, thereby differentiating its social experience from the other sites, like Facebook and Twitter. Aardvark can look for any topic, which is more aligned to Google’s core search business – a social search service, a concept that till date has never risen to mainstream popularity.