Google acquires social engagement data firm PostRank

Google Inc, yesterday acquired PostRank, the largest aggregator of social engagement data, for an undisclosed sum.

Founded in 2007 and based in Waterloo, Ontario, PostRank monitors and collects social engagement events correlated with online content in real-time across the web. PostRank gathers where and when stories generate comments, bookmarks, tweets, and other forms of interaction from a host of social hubs.

Publishers and people interested in their content use PostRank Data Services and Analytics to gauge influence, reach with audiences as well as to know what competitors are doing.

In a note written on its homepage, PostRank said, ''We know that making sense of social engagement data is crucial for online businesses, which is why we've worked hard to monitor where and when content generates meaningful interactions across the web. Indeed, conversations online are an important signal for advertisers, publishers, developers and consumers - but today's tools only skim the surface of what we think is possible.''

''We're proud of what we've accomplished, and we now look forward to working with Google's team to build more useful tools for measuring engagement online, and we'll be sure to share details on our progress in the coming months.''

The low-key acquisition appears to be an indication that Google is looking at social media as part of its long-term strategy since PostRank uses a proprietary ranking algorithm to measure blog comments, links, clicks, pageviews, and activities from social network services such as Twitter, Digg, and Facebook, according to analysts.