Google Aqcuires Zagat

[Chris Hennes]

Google has announced their purchase of Zagat.

From their post:

Moving forward, Zagat will be a cornerstone of our local offering—delighting people with their impressive array of reviews, ratings and insights, while enabling people everywhere to find extraordinary (and ordinary) experiences around the corner and around the world.

[gfweb]

Zagat is a great product that is of very little practical value. Google will synergize the heck out of it and it will be just as useless, but all the more profitable.

Its a shame that AOL didn't buy it. Then Zagat would just disappear.

Edited September 8, 2011 by gfweb (log)

[feedmec00kies]

Interesting. We received a "complimentary" copy of a "Downtown" NYC (Canal Street and south) Zagat earlier this week in the mail (from Verizon) and my husband and I briefly discussed how Zagat is, in a way, becoming obsolete, at least to many people because of internet reviews. I guess it was only a matter of time until an internet-based user review service acquired them. I think Google stands to benefit a huge amount from this, because currently (at least in my opinion) their user reviews aren't the most robust or useful out there. I find their reviews suffer from the fact that 1. few people actually review on Google Places, at least not in a major metro area like NYC, and most of the data comes from other sites, and 2. I find the reviews that *are* posted directly on Google are unreliable because of the users who seem to post on there (don't provide constructive criticism, as they're often either huge cheerleaders for the place or people looking to punish the establishment for poor service).

Edit: to clarify, I think Google stands to benefit financially a lot from this, in comparison to a hypothetical situation where another user review site bought Zagat.

Edited September 8, 2011 by feedmec00kies (log)

[ScoopKW]

While Zagat may not be useful to me -- it appears to be very useful to restaurateurs, for marketing.

"Zagat rated" is displayed near the hostess stand of most of the restaurants in my area. Seeing that Google's business model is to give the consumer info for free and charge business for each mention, Zagat fits right in.

I'm sure that soon, any restaurant that can afford the price of admission will be "Zagat rated." Even McDonald's.

[feedmec00kies]

I'm sure that soon, any restaurant that can afford the price of admission will be "Zagat rated." Even McDonald's.

Well actually, in a way it HAS been: Zagat Releases 2011 Fast Food Survey

...And that's why I don't use Zagat ratings.

Edit: Rather than posting another comment, here's Zagat's own page on the 2011 Fast Food Survey.

Edited September 9, 2011 by feedmec00kies (log)

[janeer]

Showing my age here, but years ago I met with Tim and Nina Zagat to talk about the possibility of moving form print to some sort of electronic form (including phone, which was Tim's thought), and whether and how they might do that. The fact that they were able to actually sell this business now is quite an accomplishment; the value is hard to see except in a rather aging market. I think Google is probably hoping to leverage the local-ness of their business model, but I'm not sure how. Maybe by reaching the reviewers as targets of advertising. It will be interesting to see if those reviewers keep on once it's a Google product.

[pastrygirl]

Does zagat still make their maps? I have zagat maps of Chicago and San Francisco from c.2002 that I found very valuable way back then before smartphones. While I take their reviews with a grain if salt, I trust them more than yelp, etc and would love to have their information worked into google maps on my iPhone.

[threestars]

Well I hope Google will put Zagat into more good use now that they have it.

[JAZ]

Public Radio's Marketplace talks about the purchase.