Google paid an estimated $100-200 million to expand its reach by purchasing Zagat Survey that potentially increases Google’s Social Media power. Pew Research recently report that 92% of adults on the Internet use search engines every day, so couple that information with Google’s “estimates that about 20 percent of its daily searches are for things that are nearby.”
Marissa Mayer (Google’s vice president for local, maps and location services) said:
All of these are users wondering where they should go, where they should spend their time, so to be able to offer accurate information is important, and that’s why we’ve been getting focused on reviews.
As Google gets the corner on more valuable information, the net result is that Google’s purchase of Zagat Survey appears to be brilliant.