Aardvark (search engine)
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| URL | www.vark.com |
|---|---|
| Commercial? | yes |
| Available language(s) | English |
| Owner | |
| Launched | Early 2008 |
| Alexa rank |  40,541[1] |
| Current status | Inactive |
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 asker's extended social network. Aardvark would be 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.[2][3] In September 2011, Google announced it would discontinue a number of its products, including Aardvark.[4]
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[edit] History
Aardvark was originally developed by The Mechanical Zoo, a San Francisco-based startup founded in 2007 by Max Ventilla, Damon Horowitz, Rob Spiro, and Nathan Stoll.[5] A prototype version of Aardvark was launched in early 2008[6] with an alpha launch by October 2008.[7] Aardvark was released to the public in March 2009,[8] although initially new users had to be invited by existing users.[9] The company has not released usage statistics.
[edit] Interaction model
When a user joins Aardvark, Aardvark is added to the user's IM buddylist. Users submit questions by email or IM.[10] Aardvark guides the user through the question process by providing messages that confirm receipt of the question and explain any actions required by the user. IM users are also able to use a variety of "IM commands"--one word messages that can be used to fine-tune the question parameters, invite new users, or get help.[11]
There are two main interaction flows available in Aardvark for answering a question. The primary flow involves Aardvark sending message to user (over IM, emails, etc.) asking if the user would like to answer a question. Periodically, Aardvark contacts users via email or IM when it believes they are the right person to answer another user's question. Aardvark searches through one's friends and their friends also. Instead of sending the question to every friend it finds, it will search through the person's profile to see if they have information related to the question.[12]
When Aardvark sends a question to the user, if the user responds affirmatively, Aardvark relays the question as well as the name of the questioner. The user may 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 this request. Aardvark send such requests for answers less than once a day to a given user (and users can easily change their contact settings, specify their preferred frequency and time of the day for such requests).[13]
Aardvark currently supports Google Talk, Windows Live Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger and Yahoo Messenger.[14]
A secondary flow of answering questions is more similar to traditional bulletin-board style interactions: a user sends a message to Aardvark or visits the "Answering" tab of the website, Aardvark shows the user a recent question from the user's network which has not yet been answered and which is related to the user's profile topics. This mode involves the user initiating the exchange when the user is in the mood to try to answer a question; as such, it has the benefit of tapping into users who act as eager potential answerers.[13]
In all of the interfaces, wrappers around messages from another user include 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 has expertise in, and summary statistics of the user's activity on Aardvark.[13]
[edit] Economics strategies
Privately held The Mechanical Zoo has raised a total of $6 million in funding, with the majority coming through a series A funding round led by August Capital (David Hornik) and Baseline Ventures.[15]
[edit] References
- ^ "Aardvark Sports Shop - Site traffic from alexa". Alexa Internet, Inc.. http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/www.vark.com. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
- ^ "Google Acquires Aardvark For $50 million (Confirmed)". TechCrunch. techcrunch.com. http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/11/google-acquires-aardvark-for-50-million/. Retrieved February 12, 2010. "We can now confirm that Google has signed a deal to acquire us but have no further comment."
- ^ "Google Acquires Aardvark". Official Google Blog. google.com. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/google-acquires-aardvark.html. Retrieved February 12, 2010. "we're excited to announce that we've acquired Aardvark, a unique technology company."
- ^ Alan Eustace (September 2, 2011). "A fall spring-clean". Google. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/fall-spring-clean.html. Retrieved September 2, 2011.
- ^ "Mechanical Zoo Gets $6 Million To Build Aardvark Social Search Product". TechCrunch. techcrunch.com. http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/29/mechanical-zoo-gets-6-million-to-build-aardvark-social-search-product/. Retrieved March 11, 2009. "startup founded by Max Ventilla (Google corp dev), Nathan Stoll (Google News) and Damon Horowitz (Perspecta)"
- ^ "Ex-Googlers working on stealth social search". news.cnet.comt. cnet.com. http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9924964-7.html. Retrieved March 12, 2009. "The site, called Mechanical Zoo, is poised to launch in beta next month. The San Francisco company . . .is about 9 months old"
- ^ "Mechanical Zoo Company Profile". crunchbase. crunchbase.com. http://www.crunchbase.com/company/mechanical-zoo. Retrieved March 11, 2009. "in private alpha as of October 2008"
- ^ "What to expect at SXSW". cnet. cnet.com. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10194175-36.html. Retrieved March 11, 2009. "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 a"
- ^ "Aardvark "Help Engine" Opens to Wider User". searchengineland.com. searchengineland.com. http://searchengineland.com/aardvark-help-engine-opens-16919. Retrieved March 13, 2009. "When you sign-up through an invitation . . ."
- ^ "ChaCha And Aardvark: Putting Humans To Work To Get You The Answers You Need". techcrunch. techcrunch.com. http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/03/chacha-and-aardvark-putting-humans-to-work-to-get-you-the-answers-you-need/. Retrieved March 11, 2009. "You can ask questions via an instant message buddy or email."
- ^ "Aardvark, a better social qa than twitter". i-penny.com. i-penny.com. http://i-penny.com/aardvark-a-better-social-qa-than-twitter/. 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."
- ^ "Aardvark, a better social q&a than twitter". readwriteweb.com. readwriteweb.com. http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/aardvark_25_invites.php. Retrieved March 11, 2009. "In return, Aardvark will also send you a few questions every day that fit your profile."
- ^ a b c Damon Horowitz,Sepandar D. Kamvar, The Anatomy of a Large Scale Social Search Engine, http://vark.com/aardvarkFinalWWW2010.pdf
- ^ "Aardvark, a better social qa than twitter". i-penny.com. i-penny.com. http://i-penny.com/aardvark-a-better-social-qa-than-twitter/. Retrieved March 11, 2009. "Aardvark supports Google Talk, AIM, and Microsoft's Live Messenger."
- ^ "Mechanical Zoo Gets $6 Million To Build Aardvark Social Search Product". TechCrunch. techcrunch.com. http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/29/mechanical-zoo-gets-6-million-to-build-aardvark-social-search-product/. 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."
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