Aussie connection to Google acquisition of social media service Aardvark

Internet giant Google has acquired yet another company, allegedly paying $50 million for social search services firm Aardvark.

Australian entrepreneur Ben Keighran is involved in the acquisition as lead advisor for mobile products at Aardvark, a position he has held since last February.

Keighran, who was listed on the SmartCompany Hot 30 Under 30 list last year, moved to San Francisco in 2006 and gained $6 million in venture funding in order to start instant messaging company BluePulse.

Keighran is also the chief executive and co-founder of Chomp, a site which helps users find programs on the Apple App store which are not listed among its “top” lists.

The acquisition comes after Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said the company would continue to be looking for acquisitions this year, with the goal of making one a month.

Google confirmed the acquisition in a statement, saying: “We have signed a definitive agreement to acquire Aardvark, but we don’t have any additional details to share right now”.

Co-founder Damon Horowitz has confirmed the acquisition in a statement to TechCrunch, which also reported a purchase price of $50 million. “I can confirm that we have signed an agreement with Google…We can’t comment further at this time.”

Aardvark, which was founded by several ex-Google employees, uses contacts within a social network to answer questions posted by other users.

A user asks a question through Twitter, an iPhone or a web browser, which is then directed to either close friends or acquaintances within digital networks based on what answer is required, and what information friends have in their profiles.

Questions are directed to the user most likely to accurately answer that question, or provide the best information possible.

The company has said it has more than 90,000 users and about 87% of all the questions sent through the service are then answered by either a friend, or a friend of a friend.

It has managed to raise about $6 million in capital so far, with investors including Silicon Valley entrepreneurs such as Aydin Senkut, Eric Reis, Nathan Stoll and Max Ventilla.

Both Stoll and Ventilla have previously worked at Google on several of its major products, including Google News.

The company said in a research report recently it receives about 3,100 questions per day, with mobile users more active than desktop users.

However, it is unknown whether Google will adopt the service as part of its web search engine. Usually companies such as Google and Apple acquire other services with the purpose of identifying key team members to build new products.

The Aardvark team has about 20 members, “including engineers from each of Silicon Valley’s major technology companies,” the firm claims.

But it has been suggested the Aardvark model could work well with Google’s newest venture on social networking, Google Buzz.