Google buys Aardvark 'social search' service

Internet giant Google has bought Aardvark, a "social search" service that relies on a user's contacts to provide answers to questions.

"I can confirm that we have signed an agreement with Google," Aardvark co-founder and chief technology officer Damon Horowitz said. "We can't comment further at this time."

Technology blog TechCrunch put the purchase price at around $50 million.

San Francisco-based Aardvark was founded in 2007. Its co-founders include former members of Google.

Aardvark uses the contacts in a person's network to provide answers to questions via the Web at Vark.Com, instant messaging, email or Twitter.

In a recent blog post, Aardvark said it had more than 90,000 users in October 2009 and 87.7 per cent of the questions sent to Aardvark received answers from a friend or a friend of a friend.

Aardvark said 75 per cent of the users who asked Aardvark a question also answered a question for someone else.

The company boasts a technical team of "over 20 people, including engineers from each of Silicon Valley's major technology companies" and its website lists several job vacancies.

Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said in a conference call with analysts last month that the Mountain View, California, company planned to acquire about one company a month this year.