Google's doing a bit of house cleaning today, announcing on its blog that it's shutting down a handful of properties and projects, including a big one they shelled out $50 million for. Social search company Aardvark is getting the axe just 18 months after being acquired.…
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For Startups, Some Good News From Google
Google spent $145 million buying nine companies in the first quarter of 2010. And it seems the company is looking to open its wallet even wider as it continues its shopping spree. That is good news for web startups.…
Read MoreThe Aardvark Theory of Product: Fake It Till You Make It
The secret behind Aardvark's success was acute awareness of how close they were to failure, Aardvark co-founders Max Ventilla and Damon Horowitz said Friday. They detailed a process of rapid idea rejection and extensive testing throughout Aardvark's short startup history.…
Read MorePeerPong Raises $2.8M for an Aardvark for Twitter
PeerPong has reportedly raised $2.8 million for social search. The service which isn't open to the public yet, describes itself as “an easy way to connect with the right Twitter users to get direct answers fast.”…
Read MoreGoogle's Acquhire Binge
What do collaboration toolmaker AppJet, social search manager Aardvark and email search appmaker reMail have in common? A trio of little startups, they all have been acquired recently by Google (s GOOG) and they were all founded by former Google employees.…
Read MoreConfirmed: Google Buys Social Search Engine Aardvark
Updated: Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has bought social search engine Aardvark, we have confirmed. TechCrunch, which first reported the deal, puts th……
Read MoreAardvark to Answer More Questions With Vark.com
Aardvark today expanded its answer service beyond its iPhone and instant messenger application offerings with the launch of Vark.com, a social search…
Read MoreAardvark Launches an iPhone App
Aardvark, a San Francisco-based startup that touts a web-based answer service, today released a similar application for the iPhone that will let…
Read MoreSearch: Social Or Algorithmic?
Many of us spend large parts of our day searching for information. After spending the weekend at Social Web FooCamp, I have been spending quite a bit of time thinking about how I search for information using a combination of social and algorithmic methods. When I talk about "social search," I am referring to using your network or other human beings to find information. In essence, you are relying on the knowledge of other people, instead of using Google or another search engine, which uses algorithmic methods to determine the best results. Algorithmic searches, on the other hand, are great for finding information when you know enough about a topic to formulate a strong query that will return highly relevant results. These searches work best for me when my question has little ambiguity and when I know enough about a topic to formulate a good search query.…
Read MoreNo More Tasting: It’s a Bad Year To Be a Registrar
Registrars face hard times. Regulatory changes, price increases and free hosting offerings from Google mean the future looks rough.…
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