Google Gains "World-Class" Team in Zagat Acquisition, Zagat Gains Opportunity to "Greatly Expand"

Google continues to explore the world of local commerce with one of its most intriguing acquisitions yet. The news has been spreading like wildfire: Google GOOG has purchased the leading provider of consumer survey-based information on where to eat, drink, stay and play worldwide, Zagat. Marissa Mayer, the Vice President of Local, Maps and Location Services, boasted about the news on Google's official blog. “‘Did you know there's a place in Menlo Park near the Safeway that has a 27 food rating?'” a friend asked Mayer roughly two years ago. “I was struck because I immediately knew what it meant. Food rating... 30 point scale... Zagat. And the place... had to be good. With no other context, I instantly recognized and trusted Zagat's review and recommendation.” Needless to say, Mayer was thrilled to announce that Google has acquired Zagat. “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.” “With Zagat, we gain a world-class team that has more experience in consumer based-surveys, recommendations and reviews than anyone else in the industry,” Mayer adds. “Founded by Tim and Nina Zagat more than 32 years ago, Zagat has established a trusted and well-loved brand the world over, operating in 13 categories and more than 100 cities.” Tim and Nina Zagat are equally as excited, calling the Google acquisition “the most important announcement in our 32 years of business.” “Nina and I will continue to be active in the business as co-Chairs,” Tim and Nina wrote in a statement posted on zagat.com/announcement. “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.” “The Zagats have demonstrated their ability to innovate and to do so with tremendous insight,” Mayer continued. “Their surveys may be one of the earliest forms of UGC (user-generated content) – gathering restaurant recommendations from friends, computing and distributing ratings before the Internet as we know it today even existed. Their iconic pocket-sized guides with paragraphs summarizing and ‘snippeting' sentiment were ‘mobile' before ‘mobile' involved electronics. Today, Zagat provides people with a democratized, authentic and comprehensive view of where to eat, drink, stay, shop and play worldwide based on millions of reviews and ratings.” “For all of these reasons,” Mayer concludes, “I'm incredibly excited to collaborate with Zagat to bring the power of Google search and Google Maps to their products and users, and to bring their innovation, trusted reputation and wealth of experience to our users.” Today's announcement comes three months after OpenTable OPEN announced a partnership with Yelp that would allow users to make restaurant reservations directly from a Yelp.com review page. At that time, 29% of the businesses reviewed on Yelp were restaurants, prompting users to ask for integration with OpenTable. According to the New York Times, OpenTable's announcement followed the creation of a smartphone app from Urbanspoon, a restaurant review site owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp. IACI. The app, Urbanspoon Rezbook, allows users to make reservations. While these competitors should not be ignored, the Zagats are confident they have been acquired by the right corporation. “We believe that this merger will be not only in their best interests, but also in the interests of our customers thanks to the vast additional resources and reach that Google will bring to our company,” their statement concluded. “Google is the first place everyone goes when looking for information; it's the perfect home for our content.” Follow me @LouisBedigian