Aardvark (search engine)

Aardvark

Available in	English
Owner	Google
Commercial	Yes
Launched	Early 2008
Current status	Abandoned, shut down by Google

Aardvark was a social search service that connected users live with friends or friends-of-friends who were able to answer their questions, also known as a knowledge market. Users submitted questions via the Aardvark website, email or instant messenger and Aardvark identified and facilitated a live chat or email conversation with one or more topic experts in the 'askers' extended social network. Aardvark was used for asking subjective questions for which human judgment or recommendation was desired. It was also used extensively for technical support questions. Users could also review question and answer history and other settings on the Aardvark website. Google acquired Aardvark for $50 million on February 11, 2010.^[1][2] In September 2011, Google announced it would discontinue a number of its products, including Aardvark.^[3]

History

Nathan Stoll giving a presentation to the University of Michigan in October 2010.

Aardvark was originally developed by The Mechanical Zoo, a San Francisco-based startup founded in 2007 by Max Ventilla, Nathan Stoll (both former Google employees), Damon Horowitz and Rob Spiro.^[4] A prototype version of Aardvark was launched in early 2008.^[5] Aardvark was released to the public in March 2009,^[6] although initially new users had to be invited by existing users.^[7] The company did not release usage statistics.

The name Mechanical Zoo was chosen in homage to the machine-like aspect of its applications, including Aardvark and other animal-named products that were intended for future release.^[8]

Interaction model

When a user joined Aardvark, aardvark was added to the user's IM buddylist. Users submitted questions by email or IM.^[9] Aardvark guided the user through the question process by providing messages that confirmed receipt of the question and explained any actions required of the user. IM users were able to use a variety of "IM commands"—one word messages that could be used to fine-tune the question parameters, invite new users, or get help.^[10]

There were two main interaction flows available in Aardvark for answering a question. The primary flow involved Aardvark sending a message to the user (via IM, email, etc.) asking if the user would like to answer a question. Periodically, Aardvark contacted users via email or IM when it believed they were well-suited to answer another user's question. Aardvark searched through one's friends and friends' friends also. Instead of sending the question to every friend it found, it searched a person's profile to see if there were information related to the question.^[11]

When Aardvark sent a question to the user, if the user responded affirmatively, Aardvark relayed the question as well as the name of the questioner. The user could then simply type an answer to the question, a friend's name or email address to refer to someone who may know the answer or simply type in "pass" to pass on the request. Aardvark sent such requests for answers less than once a day to a given user (and users could easily change contact settings, specify preferred frequency and time of the day for such requests).^[12]

Aardvark supported Google Talk, Windows Live Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger.^[13]

A secondary flow of answering questions was more similar to traditional bulletin-board style interactions: a user sent a message to Aardvark or visited the "Answering" tab of the website, Aardvark showed the user a recent question from the user's network which had not yet been answered and which was related to the user's profile topics. This mode involved the user initiating the exchange when the user was in the mood to try to answer a question; as such, it had the benefit of tapping into users who acted as eager potential 'answerers'.^[12]

In all of the interfaces, wrappers around messages from another user included information about the user to facilitate trust: the user's real name, age, gender, the social connection between the two users, a section of topics the user had expertise in, and summary statistics of the user's activity on Aardvark.^[12]

Funding and economic strategies

The Mechanical Zoo was privately held, prior to acquisition by Google. Initial funding was in early 2008, with $750,000 in convertible debt from angel investors.^[14] This was followed by a series A funding round of $6 million, led by August Capital, in October 2008.^[15]

See also

• Human search engine

References

1. "Google Acquires Aardvark For $50 million (Confirmed)". TechCrunch. techcrunch.com. February 11, 2010. Archived from the original on February 13, 2010. Retrieved February 12, 2010. We can now confirm that Google has signed a deal to acquire us but have no further comment.
2. "Google Acquires Aardvark". Official Google Blog. Archived from the original on February 14, 2010. Retrieved February 12, 2010. we're excited to announce that we've acquired Aardvark, a unique technology company.
3. Alan Eustace (September 2, 2011). "A fall spring-clean". Archived from the original on September 7, 2011. Retrieved September 2, 2011.
4. "Mechanical Zoo Gets $6 Million To Build Aardvark Social Search Product". TechCrunch. techcrunch.com. October 29, 2008. Archived from the original on March 14, 2009. Retrieved March 11, 2009. startup founded by Max Ventilla (Google corp dev), Nathan Stoll (Google News) and Damon Horowitz (Perspecta)
5. "Ex-Googlers working on stealth social search". news.cnet.comt. cnet.com. Archived from the original on June 17, 2011. Retrieved April 13, 2012. The site, called Mechanical Zoo, is poised to launch in beta next month. The San Francisco company . . .is about 9 months old
6. "What to expect at SXSW". cnet. cnet.com. Archived from the original on March 14, 2009. Retrieved April 13, 2012. Given the dismal economy, there won't be a whole lot of new companies launching at SXSWi this year. There are a few: Social search company Aardvark
7. "Aardvark "Help Engine" Opens to Wider User". searchengineland.com. March 13, 2009. Archived from the original on March 15, 2009. Retrieved March 13, 2009. When you sign-up through an invitation . . .
8. "Ex-Googlers working on stealth social search". news.cnet.comt. cnet.com. Archived from the original on June 17, 2011. Retrieved April 13, 2012. Mechanical Zoo is an homage to the mechanical workings of its application, as well as several animal-named products that the company plans to introduce over time.
9. "ChaCha And Aardvark: Putting Humans To Work To Get You The Answers You Need". techcrunch. techcrunch.com. November 3, 2008. Archived from the original on March 23, 2009. Retrieved March 11, 2009. You can ask questions via an instant message buddy or email.
10. "Aardvark, a better social qa than twitter". i-penny.com. Archived from the original on September 3, 2010. Retrieved March 11, 2009. Aardvark features a number of simple commands that allow you to interact with the service and that are always explained in your conversations with Aardvark.
11. "Aardvark, a better social q&a than twitter". readwriteweb.com. Archived from the original on March 12, 2009. Retrieved March 11, 2009. In return, Aardvark will also send you a few questions every day that fit your profile.
12. Damon Horowitz, Sepandar D. Kamvar, The Anatomy of a Large Scale Social Search Engine (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on February 16, 2011, retrieved August 28, 2010
13. "Aardvark, a better social qa than twitter". i-penny.com. Archived from the original on September 3, 2010. Retrieved March 11, 2009. Aardvark supports Google Talk, AIM, and Microsoft's Live Messenger.
14. "Ex-Googlers working on stealth social search". news.cnet.comt. cnet.com. Archived from the original on June 17, 2011. Retrieved April 13, 2012. The privately funded Mechanical Zoo has raised about $750,000 in convertible debt from angel investors, including ex-colleagues and friends
15. "Mechanical Zoo Gets $6 Million To Build Aardvark Social Search Product". TechCrunch. techcrunch.com. October 29, 2008. Archived from the original on March 14, 2009. Retrieved March 11, 2009. The fifteen person company has raised $7.5 million (including an earlier angel round) in a highly anticipated venture capital financing led by August Capital. Additional investors include Baseline Ventures and a number of angels.