![\"\"](\"http:\/\/gigaom.files.wordpress.com\/2010\/02\/aardvarkthumb.png?w=300&h=156\" "\\"Aardvarkthumb\\"")
<\/a>Google has acquired the social search startup Aardvark for $50 million, according to TechCrunch<\/a>. We’ve asked both companies for comment, as well as our friends and friends of friends on Aardvark (that’s what it does), but haven’t gotten official confirmation. Update 10:40 a.m. PT<\/strong>: Aardvark co-founder Damon Horowitz\u00a0confirms the company has been acquired.<\/em><\/p>\nThe Aardvark founders had formerly worked at Google, so this will be a lucrative return to the fold. On the other hand, it’s an embarrassment for Google that it couldn’t foster the same kind of innovation from them internally.<\/p>\n
Aardvark raised<\/a> $6 million from August Capital and Baseline Ventures in September 2008. Interestingly, it launched on instant messenger and the iPhone before making its way to the web<\/a>.<\/p>\n As of October 2009, Aardvark said it had 90,000 users, with more than half of them having asked or answered a question. Eighty-eight percent of questions had been answered, and 60 percent within 10 minutes.<\/p>\n Update:<\/strong> Here’s a video interview<\/a> with Aardvark co-founder Max Ventilla from our What’s Next for the Web?<\/a> Bunker event back in October. Here he talks about the future of his service, what it’s like being a startup in the real-time space, and springboarding innnovation from existing platforms.<\/p>\n