In a nutshell: we aggregate user activity from dozens of social hubs, and use that data for analytics, benchmarking and so forth. So, if you think of links as "votes" as the core-data for Google's PageRank.. Than at PostRank we're extending that graph with dozens of other gestures: bookmarks, likes, comments, etc, and building our ranking on top of that! I'm sure you can imagine the myriad of ways of how that data can be applied in different contexts.
Super excited to join Google and take it to the next level!
Congrats to the PostRank team - but I selfishly hope that Google's famous secrecy won't stop Ilya from blogging and releasing awesome open-source code!
I used PostRank when I built a reputation & SEO engine. Their product is amazing. It extracts all social signals it can find in the web.
My guess is that Google, trying to scrape all social signals they could, decided to hire those guys to help them. One more weapon in their fight with Facebook.
Wow, 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.
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.
It'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.
Agreed. 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.
Congratulations 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.
Great 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 :)
We'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.
It 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.
Meh. 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.
You'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.
