Google is shutting down Aardvark, the Q&A service it bought last year for about $50 million. Aardvark was part of Google Labs. The company is planning on putting similar Q&A features into Google+, and has reassigned most of the Aardvark team to that project.
As part of the shutdown of GoogleLabs, Aardvark will be shutting down at the end of September. The statement below was published on Aardvark’s blog, signed by Max and Damon,
Aardvark began as a small experiment in a new kind of social search, and over a few years blossomed into a service that made millions of connections between people to answer each other’s questions. It was a great experience in seeking to combine a broad vision for the future of technology with a rigorous user-centered design process. Over this time, we learned a lot about creating and maintaining online communities, and how to facilitate sharing of knowledge between people.
We’ve been excited to share these lessons within Google over the past year, especially as part of the effort behind Google+. It has been gratifying to see how well this project is doing — even in these early stages, Google+ has already become a great place to share knowledge online, eclipsing the original vark.com! — and there is much more to come very soon. In this and other projects at Google, the Aardvark team remains committed to developing powerful tools for connecting people and improving access to information.
Of course, we’re also sad to say goodbye to the original Aardvark here at vark.com. Who would have thought that a digital version of a nocturnal burrowing mammal would have engendered so much affection! We’re very grateful to the whole Aardvark community for your support along the way.
, A Product It Bought For $50 million "Pin It")
If aardvark was run right it could top google search by googles and googles. Honestly it should have automated top answers that pop if chosen and rate answers so that the questions and answers are not wasted. Like for instance I wanted to know where best to invest 5000 dollars with the best turn over and the answer was invest it in mars bars and that was rated as a number 1 answer then that would be the automated top answer if i chose that I wanted the automated top 10 answers I would get that. If I chose I wanted the automated top 1000 I would get that. Please tell me what you think respectively T.W. Preble Sullivan Maine….Have 2 categories Automated top 10 answers for a certain simalar key worded question or live with a rating to follow if was a good answer rate from 1 to 1000 eventually it would be the smartest thing in the world wide web. Lets go with this and make it fun and knowledgeable. Come on google I could really take this thing to new heights it could really be something I am thinking maybe advertise it and really put it as a sort of web Einstein maybe we could even choose a better name like googlestein or something real great like that. open this thing back up and give it your all and give me the job I want to take it to the top. This thing could really knockem dead above anything google has put out there yet. Do the next best thing and go with it.