14 DAY TRIAL // Google has just acquired search and Q&A startup Aardvark and already we have some clues about the future of the service. Both companies have come out confirming the deal and offering small details about the former's plans for the newly bought company. From the looks of it, the future seems good for Aardvark as not only Google isn't winding down the product, it's actively promoting it and will also send a few googlers to bolster the Aardvark team.
"When you need an answer to a very specific question, sometimes the information just isn't online in one simple place," Johanna Wright, Director of Product Management for Search at Google wrote.
"That's why we're excited to announce that we've acquired Aardvark, a unique technology company that lets you quickly and easily tap into the knowledge and experience of your friends and extended network of contacts. 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," she added.
Other than saying how impressed Google is with Aadrvark's technology, as if it would have acquired it if it wasn't, the company is not stating that much else. Obviously, it's way too early to see how all this will play out and Google is probably still trying to figure out how to move from here but things are looking rather promising for Aardvark.
While Google figures out what to do, it reckoned it wouldn't hurt to give Aardvark a little more exposure so it has already added it to Google Labs. Considering it's been a day or so since the papers were signed, it's surprisingly fast. That is until you realize that the Labs experiment is nothing more than a link to the Aardvark site and there's no integration with any Google product whatsoever. It's a clear sign though that Google is at least thinking about it.