Google bought Aardvark - the social question answering service. Why? Google closed Google Answers a couple of years ago. Because this time Google wants to be doing more with networks. It must be counting on people having time to make their expertise known and to prove it by answering questions - at no charge.
Google Acquires Aardvark, Google blog (Feb 12)
Stated - "Aardvark analyzes questions to determine what they're about and then matches each question to people with relevant knowledge and interests to give you an answer quickly."
What Google Gets from Aardvark's Ask-A-Friend Service Jeff Bertolucci, PCWorld (Feb 11)
Article describes Aardvark:
"You send it a question, via email, Twitter, IM, Web, or iPhone, that Aardvark then routes to the most appropriate person(s) in your social network, based on their knowledge, hobbies, tastes, and so on."
And offers one explanation for Google's interest:
"Google can use Aardvark's friends-based Q&A technology to differentiate its social experience from the leading sites -- Facebook and Twitter come to mind -- in this space."
Posted by Gwen at February 12, 2010 07:00 PM