other uses see zagat name . the zagat survey z t or z gat was established by tim and nina zagat in 1979 as a way to collect and correlate the ratings of restaurants by diners ; for their first guide covering new york city the zagats surveyed their friends . not verified in body at its height ca. 2005 the zagat survey included 70 cities with reviews based on the input of 250 000 individuals with the guides reporting on and rating restaurants hotels nightlife shopping zoos music movies theaters golf courses and airlines . not verified in body the guides are sold in book form and were formerly only available as a paid subscription on the zagat website . as part of its 125 million acquisition by google in september 2011 zagat s offering of reviews and ratings became a part of google s geo and commerce group eventually to be tightly integrated into google s services . google relaunched zagat s website on july 29 2013 with an improved interface but cut down the site from 30 cities to 9 . they released a searchable database of reviews from the other 21 cities in the following days while they worked on expanding to include more cities in the new site . 1 in december 2012 google announced that it would lay off most former full time zagat employees that had been extended as contractors at the time of the acquisition leading to prophetic business reports describing the future of zagat book production as bleak and subsequent business news reports recording the contraction of their print businesses . regardless google s acquisition and integration of zagat provided it with a strong brand in local restaurant recommendations and ample content for location based searches . citation needed contents 1 history and rating system 2 ownership 3 changes under google 3.1 initial integration 3.2 expansion under mayer 3.3 reorganization departures frommer s acquisition 3.4 dissolution of zagat team 4 prospects 5 see also 6 notes and references 7 external links history and rating system edit this section does not cite any sources . please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . april 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message the zagat survey z t or z gat was established by tim and nina zagat in 1979 as a way to collect and correlate the ratings of restaurants by diners . their first guide covered new york city dining and was accomplished on the basis of a survey of their friends . by 2005 the zagat survey included 70 cities with reviews based on the input of 250 000 individuals . the guides over the years have reported on and rated restaurants hotels nightlife shopping zoos music movies theaters golf courses and airlines . zagat guide ratings are on a thirty point scale 30 being the highest and 1 is the lowest with component ratings for defined areas e.g. for restaurants including food decor and service with cost also being estimated . in addition to numeric scores the survey also includes a short descriptive paragraph that incorporates selected quotations typically a few words from several reviewers comments about each restaurant or service as well as the pricing and rating information . with the acquisition by google there has been an emerging re emphasis away from the distinctive traditional thirty point rankings replacing it with a five point scale for products not at the zagat website . 2 ownership edit private equity firm general atlantic bought one third of parent company zagat llc for 31 million in february 2000 and installed non zagat family member amy b. mcintosh as ceo . 3 in 2008 the company was on the block for 200 million . after there were no takers the company announced in june that it was no longer for sale and that it would seek an organic growth strategy . 4 on september 8 2011 the company was acquired by google for a reported 125 million the 10th largest acquisition by google as of that date at the championing of marissa mayer its vice president of local maps and location services . 5 changes under google edit this section relies largely or entirely upon a single source . relevant discussion may be found on the talk page . please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources . april 2015 initial integration edit google is reported to have planned to use the zagat acquisition to provide more content and reviews for its locally oriented services . 6 7 8 on may 30 2012 zagat was officially integrated into google s services with its reviews now appearing on google maps and google local pages for relevant restaurants . additionally the zagat online service became free to use and once required a google account to register though that is no longer the case . 9 by july 2013 the zagat online presence had alongside its printed guides see below narrowed from thirty cities to nine eight in the u.s. as well as london though earlier content on other cities remains discoverable by outside search . 2 at the same time google pushed ahead with plans to zagatize the world through broader simplified business rankings 5 and by providing broad content unlike the traditional zagat both city specific e.g. great hot dog joints in nyc 2 and cross destination e.g. best sushi restaurants in 8 u.s. cities . as well as completely location independent content e.g. ros for every mood what to bring to any summer occasion . 10 expansion under mayer edit initially however the eventually proscribed digital and print aims were the subject of an aggressive plan to expand the impact of zagat through new hard copy city guides which required that google vp marissa mayer and a senior product manager bernardo hernandez add further editors to the group it acquired with the zagat acquisition ; unfortunately because of leadership changes above mayer earlier in 2011 google cofounder and first ceo larry page had replaced eric schmidt returning to the helm to again manage the company the request to increase the number of googlers full time google employees was denied and google s zagat editorial division was instead grown via staffing with temporary contractors january march 2012 . 5 during this period at least some of the hired contractors were led to believe by google hr that it was their hope that after the year contractors would join googlers as permanent employees with benefits ; moreover the experience of contractors during this period is reported to have been that of a normal google employee invitations to all hands google employee meetings and social events and receipt of at work benefits . 5 reorganization departures frommer s acquisition edit however as the reorganization by page continued and further decisions were made by google management the commitment to the mayer vision for zagat waned . page s assignment of susan wojcicki to head google s advertising area led to the move of another google veteran jeff huber to lead the very large geo and commerce area a new combined group that would eventually include the zagat team alongside google maps & earth travel shopping wallet and other endeavors . 5 this reorganization left marissa mayer without a comparable leadership position instead placing her as a report to her peer huber ; mayer departed google thereafter to become the ceo of yahoo in july 2012 . other management changes were harbingers of a challenging year for this group e.g. executive firings and departures including the entire team that launched google wallet and huber eventually moved from managing geo and commerce to join the google x research team . 5 mayer s departure as champion of zagat s acquisition and expansion huber s challenges in leading the large disparate geo and commerce group and google management s decision on a further acquisition frommer s the venerable travel guide publisher in august 2012 11 appear in concert as evidence of changing plans of management for the original zagat team . after the standard google all hands meeting where the frommer s acquisition was announced and discussed contractors ceased to be invited to these google meetings . 12 in this period hernandez continued to lead the zagat group where it is reported that google reorientation of zagat from their original business model to zagatize the world ... through 100 000 ratings for small businesses resulted in missed editorial production goals and zagat contractor resentment toward the new frommer s googlers they perceived as having been given their positions . 5 dissolution of zagat team edit the situation and morale in the zagat unit is reported to have decayed further when in december 2012 google informed the contractors most former full time zagat employees that their contracts would not be renewed in 2013 only to alter course within days and report renewal of the contracts through the end of june 2013 . in this new period communications between googlers and zagat contractors are said to have decayed with a further end to the social perks they had earlier enjoyed . as well bernardo hernandez departed from his leadership role of the unit . 5 prospects edit while google has declined comment one source reported in june 2013 that the future of zagat book production looks extremely bleak ... the whole division as currently structured seems to be on death watch . lots of chatter about outsourcing . 5 further reporting coincident with the rollout of the new zagat website in july 2013 indicated both that the zagat guides are now smaller than ever covering the same reduced list of 9 cities as the website and that zagat had quietly w ound down its licensing business ... managing custom print guides for corporations and third party content licensing . 2 regardless google s acquisition and integration of zagat while leading to the elimination of the zagat enterprise as it had historically functioned provided it a strong brand in local restaurant recommendations ... and lots of content for location based searches and did so f or a relatively small price 125 million . 5 even so questions are being raised about the apparent change of course e.g. regarding google s steering zagat and its mobile app toward general content and away from its traditional reviewer stable into an already very competitive well populated everyman restaurant review approach and business niche . 10 in commenting on the contraction in number of cities covered and in depth of print coverage and on google de emphasis of the distinctive traditional 30 point rankings replacing it with a 5 point scale for products not at the zagat website jason clampet at skift writes whether or not zagat s. . . brand voice will continue to rise to the top remains to be seen and while the zagat brand may not seem as strong post google ... the content s influence on diners and drinkers is arguably stronger than ever thanks to its deep integration into the world s most popular ... mapping service . 2 see also edit consumer reports gault millau harden s a similar london and uk guide michelin guide restaurant rating yelp inc. notes and references edit gannes liz . google s new zagat is much more limited for now but it s free . all things d. dow jones & company inc. retrieved 9 july 2015 . a b c d e clampet jason july 29 2013 zagat shrinks print operations launches free stripped down website skift . zagat survey taps amy mcintosh as its first ceo . business wire . 2000 10 30 . zagat closes the book on sale effort . the new york times . 2008 06 05 . a b c d e f g h i j carlson nicholas june 25 2013 how a great google workplace turned into