How Jeff Jarvis Helped Google Buy Zagat

I've often said some of the best conversations on "Press:Here" are the ones you don't see: the conversations during the commercials. I say "We'll be right back" and the microphones are turned off and everyone relaxes enough to be rather casual and sometimes they get even more interesting.

We've seriously discussed adding some sort of extra video to the website showing you what happens during the breaks. I need to get on that.

In this most recent episode, 113, Google Vice President Marissa Mayer gave up the guest seat during the commercial break to author and blogger Jeff Jarvis. The two know each other well -- Jeff's recently wrote the book "What Would Google Do?"

As she was handing over the mic, she said to Jarvis, "You know, we [Google] bought Zagat because of you."

Jarvis, genuinely surprised, "Oh really?"

Mayer went on to explain that Jarvis had invited both to a conference at City University of New York which Tim and Nina Zagat happened to attend. It was the second time the Zagats had been at the same conference with Mayer.

"Are you conference-stalking me?" Mayer joked. Mayer had lunch with the Zagats afterwards (we presume the Zagats chose the restaurant) and as the old saying goes, one thing lead to another and the two sides started talking deals.

Google would later buy Zagat for an undisclosed sum. "We shared a common vision" Mayer said.

You can see Mayer talk about the Zagat purchase in the first part of her interview this week; Jarvis talks about what happened during the commercial break at the beginning of his interview.

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