Google Buys Mobile Polling Service Polar

Google has acquired mobile opinion polling service Polar, for an undisclosed sum, and will bring its team into its Google+ social network division.

Polar was founded just two years ago by Luke Wroblewski - previously the co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Bagcheck - and Jeff Cole, previously co-founder of online community 'Patients Like Me'. The firm had raised less than $2m in funding to date and has around 1.1m active users, but analysts suggest Google's interest was principally in the skills of the firm's team.

The Polar app will continue to be available for a few months before being shut down - it's likely that polling functionality will be added to Google+ in the near future.

In a blog post Dave Besbris, VP of Engineering for Google+, said: 'I'm thrilled to welcome Luke Wroblewski and the talented Polar team to Google. They'll be working with our designers and engineers to help us make G+ as beautiful and simple to use as possible, especially on mobile devices.'

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.