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Comment by aresant | Hacker News Reader

I like this move strategically.

Zagat has recently made moves to expand their ratings from food / travel into new verticals - eg rating doctors.

Have to assume that Google foresees expanding the Zagat ratings quickly to all things local.

The Zagat "brand" resonates huge as a trusted consumer brand and having that rating attached to listings (exclusively) makes Google's search results more meaningful than competitors (the perception anyways).

Smart.

Reference - http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/wellpoint-taps-zagat...

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I am going to dissent on this one.

This buy is something Yahoo or AOL would do. Google didn't buy a technology or a business model. It bought content, an address book, and a logo. Very un-Google.

If Google's technology isn't good to compete with Yelp and Groupon, what makes it think it will be any better after buying up someone else's operation that can't compete either.

To quote Vic Gundotra, 'Two turkeys do not make an Eagle'

Somewhere in Google is a list of search categories that is sortable by search volume and adwords revenue. While the anti-trust implications probably are scary to them, they are chipping away at that list.

Weather search? Google gives you weather info right in the SERP. Stock search? Same thing. News search? Hrm.

Restaurant search? Why hand all of the revenue from these search results to advertisers and only take a slice of it for the adwords (or NONE from organic results)?

If a lot of people search for it and companies are making money, Google is at least discussing whether they should own the content/service at the top of the search results.

Zagat may not be an eagle, but it's hardly a turkey, either. I find that at the very least, Zagat reviews are more literate than Yelp reviews.

They also bought the means to create that content going forward.

I have to disagree. Not everything is about technology - Zagat has something that is highly coveted and difficult to replicate: a good reputation and critical mass.

Google (or any of us, for that matter) can spend all day building the greatest, fairest, most accurate restaurant review system known to man - but it will still be of utterly no use unless there is a critical mass of restaurants and customers who are willing to trust it and, more importantly, use it.

Bootstrapping a trusted content source is really hard (hard in the "nobody knows how to do it reliably" way, not just hard in the "it takes a lot of work" way). If you want to break into this market, simply buying said critical mass is much easier (and much less time-consuming). Whatever crazy technology you have can be layered on top.

Maybe it's my age (currently 23) But Zagat has a good reputation and critical mass?

I know Zagat as that magazine that fast food places brag about getting high ratings from (KFC ran commercials for a while claiming a #1 rating from them).

I am with you, I am 27 and really had no clue what the heck Zagat is. I knew they reviewed food places, but why they are trusted or why I should care? I am more interested in my co-workers opinion.

I don't see this as a great purchase for Google either. They already put business reviews from other websites on their listing pages. I have seen Zagat ratings on various pages. Why couldn't they just pull it in also instead of buying the company?

oh man. The first time I saw a "Zagat rated" sign I was so confused. "Is this some sort of 'American Psycho' tie-in? why would an upscale pizza place pay to be related to that book?"

I was certain zagat was made up by Ellis for his book.

I'd never seen it until I moved to the bay area, where a 'Zagat rated' usually means "Yes, this is a chain, but we pretend really hard that it's not fast food."

28..always been aware of Zagat. Who knows, travels, what you read, etc. Zagat rated over the last few years has definitely seemed to not be as indicative, as before, of the highest quality of restaurant.

> The Zagat "brand" resonates huge as a trusted consumer brand

Only because they focus on a niche. If they start expanding their ratings to other areas, it could weaken their brand. Rating doctors? Unless we're talking Beverly Hills plastic surgeons, I'd have trouble taking them seriously.

Why? I trust professional reviewers more than I trust random disgruntled customers. Because some doctors are better than others, professional reviews could be useful information.

Doesn't Google already do local ratings on pretty much everything?

Hope Google stops stealing reviews from Yelp now.

Definitely. Seems like a good buy and a good strategic move.

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