Google made a big announcement on their official blog today letting the world know they have acquired Zagat, the local review giant. Zagat’s reviews and ratings have become known as a well-trusted source.

Marissa Mayer, Google‘s vice president of Local, Maps and Location Services says, “Moving forward, Zagat will be a cornerstone of our local offering—delighting people with their impressive array of reviews, ratings and insights, while enabling people everywhere to find extraordinary (and ordinary) experiences around the corner and around the world.”

She went on to talk about the world-class team at Zagat who have an enormous amount of experience in consumer based-surveys, recommendations and reviews than anyone else in the industry.

Why are they so experienced? Maybe because they’ve been around for 32 years. That’s right, 32 years. Zagat started as a printed guide to restaurants and as Mayer stated, their guides are one of the earliest forms of UGC – User Generated Content – which is what we all know and love on the world wide web in today’s times.

Zagat has brought their company to the web and mobile apps, and now they can add the power of Google search and Google Maps to their product.

Zagat founders, Nina and Tim Zagat, made the announcement today and ended it with saying, “We are thrilled to see our baby placed in such good hands and to start today as official ‘Googlers.'”

Image Source: Zagat