Have you noticed your favorite restaurant has a Zagat ranking certificate which says something like “ZAGAT Rated 27”!!!Zagat has a 30 point ranking scale, higher the better, and mostly into the “food” sector.
Yesterday, Google announced that it has acquired Zagat in an effort to boost it’s local products with the restaurant rating service. In the Google Blog, it has said that “Zagat is the cornerstone of our local offering”. Zagat is well known for its quality ranking system and originality of reviews.
Zagat is expected to boost Google’s local coverage by providing:
– User surveys.
– Recommendations and ratings.
– Guides that can be aggregated into Google services and maps.
Read the announcement letter by Zagat’s founders Nina & Tim Zagat which summarizes as:
Nina and I will continue to be active in the business as co-Chairs; however, the merger of our resources, expertise and platforms with those of Google will give us the opportunity to greatly expand. We have spent enough time with Google senior management to know that they fully share our belief in user-generated content, and our commitment to accuracy and fairness in providing consumers with the information necessary to make smart decisions about where to eat, travel and shop…
We couldn’t be happier to see our baby placed into such good hands and are looking forward to being Googlers in the years ahead.
Twitter
Facebook
Reddit
RSS
So first Motorola droids and now Zagat – is Zagat considered a money maker? Or maybe Google has some good ideas for the business. Thanks for posting this informative news.
Seems like Google underpaid for the deal….Zagat was looking close to 200m and all it was able to squeeze out of G is 64m. Good bargain I suppose.
Hmmm..Isn’t Zagat similar to Yelp? And didn’t Google acquire Yelp? I can’t say that I really keep tabs on what Google is doing and how they are expanding. Sounds like overlap if they do, in fact, own both companies.
Rachel – Yes both are similar, but am not sure if Google was successful in the Yelp acquistion, i read some articles where there were setbacks in the deal. I think they got Zagat to compete against Yelp now.
Interesting, I am lost when it comes to Yelp, Zaggat, or Google Maps when it comes to reviews. This will be interesting to see how this changes anything with Google.
Bryce
Bryce – I usually look at the Zagat rankings, i think they have like 4 quality categories – Price, Decor, Food & something else i dont remember now. Each one they rate from 1 to 30, 30 being the best. Gives a perspective before dining 🙂