Google’s Zagat buy could give search critics more ammo

Google’s acquisition of Zagat is a relatively small one for the search-engine giant: less than $66 million, according to some estimates. But the ripples created by the deal could be far larger than its monetary value, because the review-based service is a content producer, which takes Google into an area it has mostly avoided in the past. That the web behemoth plans to make Zagat a central part of its local recommendations could give “search neutrality” advocates — and possibly even the Federal Trade Commission — more ammunition in their battle with the Google empire.