Goodrec, a recommendation site that was first introduced at TechCrunch50, has launched its online review hub to the public alongside a new iPhone application. The site differentiates itself from other similar sites by keeping reviews short and sweet – users can rate an item as either ‘Thumbs Up’, ‘Mixed Bag’, or ‘Thumbs Down’, and can include only 160 characters of text. The site also covers a very broad range of items, which include restaurants, music, nightlife hotspots, or anything else users submit. You can find the main site at Goodrec.com, and can grab the free iPhone application here.
At launch the site is pre-populated with venues and items relating to nightlife, books, music, and restaurants, but users will be able to add reviews to anything else (they’ll just have to add the product or location first). Users can also request that friends review a given item by sending invitations to through peers through Facebook or Email.
CEO Mihir Shah says that since TechCrunch50, the site has compiled over 100,000 recommendation from its beta testers, the majority of which were submitted through the site’s iPhone application. Shah says that because of the brevity of its reviews, Goodrec is better suited for mobile reviewing than competitors like Yelp, which doesn’t allow users to submit reviews from its iPhone app (likely because the site prefers longer reviews). Aside from the main standalone application, Goodrec is also offering free apps that focus on each category the site covers (the first will be called GoodFood and will offer restaurant recommendations, with more to follow). The site also has plans to quickly expand to other mobile platforms.
The site’s Thumbs Up or Down rating system is also taking a different approach, shying away from the typical 5-star system seen elsewhere. Shah notes that as most review sites compile dozens of reviews for a given item, the average usually approaches three stars, making it difficult to tell if the restaurant or attraction is worth checking out. Goodrec presents these thumbs in a counter form (Digg does something similar), allowing users to immediately tell how positive reviews are without having to read through them.
Goodrec’s biggest problem will clearly lie in getting users, as Sean Parker noted during the site’s presentation at TechCrunch50. With competitors that have compiled years worth of reviews, Goodrec will need to quickly build a catalog of content for it to stay competitive. That said, Shah says the site is off to a good start, averaging over 20,000 restaurant reviews a month in its beta stage.
Nice!
:) http://tinyurl.com/bsuh3r
I like the nice design of the site.
I hope this does well.
Anjali Sen
F### !!
WHAT’S UP WITH THAT GODDAMN AUTOMATIC PAGE REFRESH THAT YOU GUYS ADDED RECENTLY ?!
Everytime I’m in the f#cking middle of a post, it reloads the page and I can go scrolling again for 1 hour.
I know you probably did this to create more $$$ with your ads, but it’s really, really stupid.
I think this site will be a success. It will come in handy when I need an honest opinion about a restaurant I never been to before.
I’ve been tinkering with it. They get huge kudos for replying to my feedback the very same day! Visually appealing, easy to use. Off to a good start.
Didn’t like being hammered to email my friends but it does give you the option to skip it. A bit hard to navigate by neighborhood vs city but per the rep, they are supposed to add it.
It would really be nice if they offered an app for the G1. A HUGE improvement on the trainwreck that is Yelp. Also easier to load on a mobile device as well.
Best of luck to them. 20k restaurant reviews during Beta is actually pretty good. However, it’s only the tip of the iceberg on what they’ll need to get.
Not clear
Until there’s a standard that somehow puts ratings into the public domain, I just see sites like this struggling, and watering down what’s already out there.
I love Goodrec. I think it’s a very user-friendly site and the iPhone app is fabulous.
I recently wrote about all the foodie iPhone apps that I really like to use and some that I won’t use but others might.
Including Goodrec: http://www.exam...11;grand-finale
Hi guys, thanks for the feedback and kind words.
Apple just approved our second iPhone app, GoodFood, which should make it even easier to find and rec restaurants while on the go.
http://goodrec....oodfood/iphone/
The new GoodFood app is all native, so it’s much faster than our initial offering. It’s also more tightly focused on restaurants, so it should be much easier to find and filter recs based on criteria such as price, cuisine, which friend rated it, etc.
And unlike our first app, GoodFood is now completely open, so you can download and use the app right away without signing up.
We think it’s one of the best apps out there for finding recommendations, especially if you like flickable maps. Hope you find it useful.