Google has bought Aardvark to strengthen their questions and answers capabilities, something that Yahoo for instance did with Yahoo Answers long ago.

Every Aardvark user has received an email about the acquisition in which the founders of the service state that everything will remain as is. The service will remain free and fully operational.

One of the first changes is the addition of Aardvark to Google Labs. That’s not a bad thing as it will expose the service to a larger userbase.

The Aardvark team has created a FAQ on their blog that addresses the acquisition and some question that Aardvark users might have about it.

Google has also released a statement about the acquisition on the Google Blog.

Registered users can ask questions from several popular Instant Messaging clients such as Google Talk, Windows Live, AIM or Twitter, practically all email clients (no matter if they are online or desktop clients) and the Aardvark website. One major component is the friend network that user’s can utilize to have their questions answered. When posting a question Aardvark will analyze that question and try to find the best possible friends who can answer that question. Questions will also be directed to friends of friends, co-workers, people living in the same location and people who are topical experts.

Answers will be either send to an Instant Messenger of choice if the user who asked the question is online at that time or to the email account if the user is offline in the client. The time it takes to get a response depends largely on the question, the time the question is asked and the friends of the user. All questions that have been asked during tests (with only 1 offline friend present at that time) were answered by dedicated users of the service in less than five minutes.

The concept itself is pretty amazing and users can contribute by answering questions. The main benefits of Aardvark over similar services like Yahoo Answers are that the answers (seem to be) more professional, that questions can be asked from Instant Messengers, Email or the website, that the answers arrive in less than five minutes on average and that the community does not seem to be spammed by webmasters promoting their own services.

Aardvark offers a great alternative to Yahoo Answers, similar services and doing research on the Internet.

Update: Google has acquired the Aardvark service, technology and website in 2010. The Internet giant later on decided to discontinue Aardvark. The site and technology is no longer available.