More news from Google this week, as the search engine announced its plans to acquire social search engine Aardvark. The details of the acquisition have not been disclosed, though TechCrunch estimates the purchase amount at $50 million. Google is being rather tight-lipped about its plans for Aardvark as well, saying that the announcement of the two companies having signed papers agreeing to the acquisition is all the information it has to give for the time being.
As a social search engine Aardvark aims to provide fast answers based on your social network connections. The idea of relevancy is also quite important to Ardvark, as the search engine also looks to contextualize the search results so that they are useful as well as sourced from trusted friends and acquaintances. Aardvark does so by setting up a Question and Answer platform through which your social connections are leveraged towards seeking actual answers to questions.
It is this social aspect of Aardvark that could be of interest to Google, especially as the search engine advances towards a more contextual search experience. In improving its service and responding to search tools that are leveraging social networks for providing additional context to queries. Google has added several social features to its existing search, giving optimized options to regular Google users.
Outside of improving the existing Google service for its registered users, the company could also seek a way in which socially driven search results could aid non-registered users. The incorporation of Aardvark could give Google additional data with which to apply to its ever-improving algorithms, even if that isn’t a direct social offering to Google users.
As far as Google’s own social advancements go, the company is responding more aggressively to the trends being put forth by Facebook and Twitter. Combining a social aspect to more and more of Google’s apps is one way in which Google is looking to retain and further engage its users while also improving its search utilities.
Whether or not Aardvark will have anything to do with Google’s plans on this end, time will tell. Until then, we’ll have to sit tight and see what else Google is holding up its sleeve.