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the Free CMSWire NewsletterWelcome to another week in Google! This time around, the Internet giant bought a survey giant, wrote a new Web language and (possibly) brought a tool back from the dead.
Zagat Rated
So, Google acquired Zagat.
Marissa Mayer, Vice President of local, maps and location services, announced the purchase in a blog post, stating that Google will "collaborate with Zagat to bring the power of Google search and Google Maps to their products and users, and to bring their innovation, trust and wealth of experience to our users."
The terms were not disclosed.
What the Internet giant stands to gain from the purchase is obvious: Zagat provides content that can be used to enhance products such as Google Places. Rather than redirecting consumers to a third-party site, Google could feature Zagat's ratings and reviews in its search results, Google maps, and in mobile apps.
"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," added Mayer. "…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."
Zagat co-founders Nina and Tim Zagat stated that they will "continue to be active in the business as co-Chairs," adding, "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."
Dart
Google's back on the grind with a new programming language called Dart. According to the Goto conference schedule, Dart is "a new programming language for structured Web programming."
Establishing a programming language can seem like a feat of humanity, but Google's got a pretty hefty staff backing its efforts. "…the company can single-handedly make a programming language at least somewhat relevant," wrote CNET's Stephen Shankland. "And because it's got such a vast computing infrastructure, anything that increases the efficiency of power consumption, or improves the flexibility of the computing foundation, can pay off directly in lower electricity bills and higher reliability."
Gilad Bracha, creator if the Newspeak programming language and co-author of the Java Language Specification, will speak along with Lars Bak. Bak led the team that built the Chrome browser's V8 engine.
The Google Drive Resurrection
Remember the elusive GDrive? Back in 2006 Google was supposedly working on the solution, a cloud-based storage system that would allow users to access files from any device, anywhere. In 2008 Google scrapped the idea, but recently there have been whispers of its return.
According to Techcrunch's MG Siegler: "code found in Chromium recently suggested that it may be making a comeback. Specifically, there was a note to add the non-existant (to the public) drive.google.com domain to a secure list in the browser’s code."
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