Aardvark was a social search service that connected users live with friends or friends-of-friends who were able to answer their questions, also known as a knowledge market.

Users submitted questions via the Aardvark website, email or instant messenger and Aardvark identified and facilitated a live chat or email conversation with one or more topic experts in the 'askers' extended social network.

Users could also review question and answer history and other settings on the Aardvark website.

[3] Aardvark was originally developed by The Mechanical Zoo, a San Francisco-based startup founded in 2007 by Max Ventilla, Nathan Stoll (both former Google employees), Damon Horowitz and Rob Spiro.

The name Mechanical Zoo was chosen in homage to the machine-like aspect of its applications, including Aardvark and other animal-named products that were intended for future release.

The primary flow involved Aardvark sending a message to the user (via IM, email, etc.)