I don't really understand why they dropped Google Hotpot. I mean, it's still there, but there doesn't seem to be much movement or promotion there.
Zagat employs people to actively review restaurants. That's fine for people who have the same taste as Zagat, but it's only one filter and arguably not very scalable.
Hotpot otoh is more like Pandora for restaurants. I rate restaurants and it gives me recommendations for stuff that aligns to my taste as calculated from others who share my taste. It provides a much better filter and actually gets better as more people use it, which is the best kind of scalable. This also seems like a more innovative and Googly way to do this.
Hotpot merged directly into placepages -- I see my reviews and reviews from my friends on local pages (it's a really nice experience). I think to get a full picture of a restaurant you might care about:
1) reviews from your friends (hotpot)
2) reviews from food critics (zagat)
3) reviews from the general public (yelp)
So it makes sense to me that hotpot will continue to live where it is (and most likely get turned into a +1 sort of thing so that it can also work with G+)
> Zagat employs people to actively review restaurants. That's fine for people who have the same taste as Zagat, but it's only one filter and arguably not very scalable.
It's not like there's one person per city, Zagat uses input from tons of people. It's also consistent, you don't have to wonder if the glowing review was written by the owner like you do on Yelp. Zagat gets people to pay for access to their reviews, that in itself should tell you something. Even better, Google will surely make them free, likely with some innovative tie-ins with Maps and Places.
Yelp started out paying people to write reviews. Not everyone, of course, but when they wanted to move into a new market they'd hire people to start "seeding" the area with reviews. When they had enough traction, they could stop. Zagat may do the same when they reach some critical mass. And if they hire professional food critics and mark them as such, I'd be OK with that.
Comments
I don't really understand why they dropped Google Hotpot. I mean, it's still there, but there doesn't seem to be much movement or promotion there.
Zagat employs people to actively review restaurants. That's fine for people who have the same taste as Zagat, but it's only one filter and arguably not very scalable.
Hotpot otoh is more like Pandora for restaurants. I rate restaurants and it gives me recommendations for stuff that aligns to my taste as calculated from others who share my taste. It provides a much better filter and actually gets better as more people use it, which is the best kind of scalable. This also seems like a more innovative and Googly way to do this.
Hotpot merged directly into placepages -- I see my reviews and reviews from my friends on local pages (it's a really nice experience). I think to get a full picture of a restaurant you might care about:
1) reviews from your friends (hotpot)
2) reviews from food critics (zagat)
3) reviews from the general public (yelp)
So it makes sense to me that hotpot will continue to live where it is (and most likely get turned into a +1 sort of thing so that it can also work with G+)
> Zagat employs people to actively review restaurants. That's fine for people who have the same taste as Zagat, but it's only one filter and arguably not very scalable.
It's not like there's one person per city, Zagat uses input from tons of people. It's also consistent, you don't have to wonder if the glowing review was written by the owner like you do on Yelp. Zagat gets people to pay for access to their reviews, that in itself should tell you something. Even better, Google will surely make them free, likely with some innovative tie-ins with Maps and Places.
Yelp started out paying people to write reviews. Not everyone, of course, but when they wanted to move into a new market they'd hire people to start "seeding" the area with reviews. When they had enough traction, they could stop. Zagat may do the same when they reach some critical mass. And if they hire professional food critics and mark them as such, I'd be OK with that.