7 ms·
Google acquires Postrank.com
- troymc 15y agoWow, congratulations PostRank! I remember hearing your pitch at one of the WatStart meetings when I lived in Waterloo, back when you were AideRSS. This is also seems like a smart move by Google. They want to "get more into social" (whatever that means), and PostRank has been aggregating and analyzing social interactions across the web for longer than most.
- chrisbaglieri 15y agoNot to mention they have a solid team. Lots o' technical chops there. Interestingly enough, they're mostly a Ruby shop if I'm not mistaken.
- maplealmond 15y agoWe are indeed!
- gnufied 15y agoWill it be now, you will be rewriting everything in Python or Go? :P
- apalmblad 15y agoCongrats to the team! I just hope this doesn't reduce the volume or quality of posts to igvita.com - it's such an amazing resource for technical ruby "stuff".
- a3camero 15y agoI also remember this, I think it was barcamp. Great to see Waterloo successes!
- mey 15y agoThis is the first time I've ever heard of Postrank. Can someone provide a brief of what they do and why google would buy them?
- timdorr 15y agoThey look at your social media posts and provide analytics that measure how engaged people are (commenting, liking, retweeting, etc).
- Alex3917 15y agoIt seems like this functionality may ultimately be included in Google analytics.
- staunch 15y agoThis is why press releases usually include boilerplate describing each company.
- subbu 15y agoOne of the reasons could be its founder/CTO, Ilya Grigorik. Check out http://www.igvita.com/ http://www.igvita.com/. He is brilliant.
- grandalf 15y agoIlya is amazing. I wonder if this means that some Ruby will be creeping into the Google ecosystem.
- DanielRibeiro 15y agoCongrats to Ilya. His personal blog has some of the most inpiring articles in Ruby/AI and technichal stuff in general: http://www.igvita.com http://www.igvita.com
- igrigorik 15y ago
- subbu 15y agoI don't use PostRank but I read all of Ilya's articles. His articles are awesome. He is awesome. Congratulations. You deserve a pay day.
- zitterbewegung 15y agoWhat will this mean for the users of the service? Will it be shut down in the future?
- abraham 15y agoGoogle acquisitions are generally shut down and aspects of the company's features start showing up in related products
- igrigorik 15y agoWe've suspended new signups for the moment, while we figure out what lies ahead. Having said that, for all existing users, the service will continue as is! Stay tuned for more.
- nakkiel 15y agoSo you sign an acquisition deal without discussing what "lies ahead"? I guess a "We can't give much details for now, ..." would be sufficient.
- lem72 15y agoNice to see another Canadian Company get acquired! Go Canucks Go!
- cal5k 15y agoReally? It's nice to see our best engineers moving down to California?
- thomasgerbe 15y agoMeh. Maybe Canadian companies should do a better job at retaining talent. I love my country (Canada) but so few startups and creative agencies are appealing. That's not to say they don't exist but there's just so much more opportunity and money down south.
- cal5k 15y agoIf you don't find startups and creative agencies to be appealing, why not start your own rather than complain about it?
- thomasgerbe 15y agoI did. I moved to the U.S. and started my own.
- cal5k 15y agoSuffice it to say you don't really love your country, you just like the idea of it/
- lem72 15y agoYes, It's always nice to see great people given opportunities that they want.
- chanian 15y agoIt is bittersweet, it's a big win and lose for Canadian tech, but imo a net win. Canadian investors and other Canadian tech companies should see this as a sign that Canada is serious about building great world class technology. Without exits like this, outsiders will continue to assume that "there is no tech scene in Canada", which is untrue. If this buyout motivates more local engineers to start companies, I think it is a good thing.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- renaudb 15y agoCongrats! Keep pushing for Waterloo interns hiring ;-)
- OmarIsmail 15y agoWow!! This is amazing! Huge congratulations to Ilya and the crew at PostRank. Consistent and best-in-class execution. Awesome job and hope it was a huge pay day :) I know it's hypocritical for me to say but rather unfortunate they're moving to MV. Would be nice to have some rich young people in Waterloo to act as investor/mentors.
- imack 15y agoIt's especially unfortunate since there is a Google office in Waterloo. I know it's probably pretty complicated, but I feel like this isn't really a benefit to the Canadian startup ecosystem.
- igrigorik 15y agoThanks Omar! Definitely couldn't have done it without all the support from the local community and friends - Waterloo is an awesome place.
- ultrasaurus 15y agoWho`s going to host our hackathons now? Also, congrats!
- reso 15y agoAgreed. I'm surprised they're all moving to MV when there's a Google office just down King street. I hope they don't forget their Waterloo roots when they're all rich in Silicon Valley.
- summitpush 15y agoIs this the same guy who made vimgolf? And is it in any way related to http://www.vimgolf.com http://www.vimgolf.com being down right now?
- igrigorik 15y agolol! No, apparently vimgolf just hit the limit on the free mongohq account. Upgraded - back to normal. Enjoy the golfing! ;D
- dimmuborgir 15y agoWell deserved. Postrank has been the best example of usage of EventMachine.
- andrewcross 15y agoGreat to see a company out of Waterloo get some well-deserved recognition. Definitely agree that it's sad to see them all get moved to MV, but such is life. We still have Kik and RIM though :) Kudos to them!
- dengzhi 15y agorim sucks tho, and i've never even heard of kik
- rapind 15y agoCongratulations Ilya. I first saw postrank (aiderss) at an Amazon AWS meetup years ago and grabbing a beer with you guys. Google's a great company of super smart people and you guys will fit right in. And please continue blogging!
- rsingel 15y agoAnyone have a API key from Postrank they don't use and wouldn't mind parting with? Really need something like this.
- jbellis 15y agoIt was only a matter of time before Google started using Cassandra... :) (Re http://webpulp.tv/post/4184040219/scaling-postrank-using-ruby-and-eventmachine-with-ilya http://webpulp.tv/post/4184040219/scaling-postrank-using-rub...)
- bergie 15y agoThere is something reasonably similar to PostRank in PHP: http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/want_to_do_something_similar_to_postrank/ http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/want_to_do_something_similar_to_po...
- erikpukinskis 15y agoShouldn't the headline be "Entire Postrank team quits and is hired by Google"?
- xentronium 15y agoYou're assuming that it's a talent acquisition, while I think their product is a great cultural match for google, which had always been about data. Guess, time will show.