Posts tagged ‘theSUGGESTR’

The NEW theSUGGESTR.com

By admin, 29 November, 2009, 3 Comments

We are pleased to announce the release of a MAJOR update of theSUGGESTR.com.  This redesign completely changes the look and feel of the site and also introduces a number of new features.

Some of the key new features of our site include:

  • Improved Performance.
  • Improved Look & Feel.
  • A better search interface.
  • Improved Suggestions.
  • Simpler rating system.
  • Better “TV” Maps.

As always our primary goal is to provide you personalized suggestions for restaurants, bars, hotels and other local businesses your sure to love.  We use your tastes and the tastes of those like you to help make our suggestions.

Our new release focuses on making suggestion easier to get, more accurate and easier to access.  Our brand new look and feel should make using our site more pleasurable to your eyes and easier on your brain.  Our behind the scenes suggestion engine is now more accurate and will start providing suggestions with as little as two ratings (although with more ratings comes more accurate suggestions).

One of our favorite (and your favorite) features is our special TV Maps – where you can see the suggestions from some of your favorite shows such as Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and Food Paradise.  Look out in the next week or so for us to add a new show (Man vs. Food).

Don’t forget using our alerts feature you can get notified when your near any of your personalized suggestions, places on your wish lists or places from your favorite TV shows.

We plan on continuing to update the site and offer more ways for you to keep in touch and get suggestions while on the go.

Please feel free to contact us with any feedback you have on our new site design.

New Rating System

By admin, 6 April, 2009, 2 Comments

We’ve done a lot of work trying to improve our core value – providing you accurate and personal suggestions for local businesses like restaurants, bars and other local services.  One of the first steps we are taking is to move away from the traditional 5 star rating system and move to a more accurate 100 point system.

This 100 point system allows us to be more accurate with our suggestions as it allows you to be more granular with your ratings.  We believe that there are more than 5 levels of ratings that people have when they think of all the places they visit and thus the normal 5 star system ends up grouping places together that shouldn’t be.

For those who have contributed to our over 200,000 ratings we’ve already changed your ratings so that 1 star = 20 points, 2 stars = 40 points, 3 stars = 60 points, 40 starts = 80 points and 5 stars = 100 points.  You can now login and adjust your ratings if you desire.

As always we’d love to hear what you think.

theSUGGESTR.com

theSUGGESTR Improves Personalized Mobile Suggestions

By admin, 11 February, 2009, 1 Comment

theSUGGESTR is all about providing you personalized local search based on your own personal tastes.  This eliminates the need for searching through 100’s of reviews but instead now we can suggest a place that meets your needs.  No where is this approach more beneficial than when you are away from home and only have your mobile device available to you.  That is why we are excited to announce improvements to our mobile site.

This new version of our mobile site makes searching easier than ever.  Just enter what your looking for (for example: pizza or lawyer or bar) and where your looking for it and we’ll do the rest.  We’ll provide you our unique personalized results letting you know which business best fit your tastes.  You also have available to you some of the sort options you’re used to from our regular site.  Sort by personalized score, # ratings or average rating.

Another new feature is the ability to see your personal wish list from your mobile device.  This makes it easy for you to find businesses you wanted to check out but haven’t had the chance yet.  Don’t forget to rate it once you’ve checked it out.  Speaking of rating businesses…

Our new mobile site allows you to rate businesses right from your phone.  So the next time your bored and have your cell phone handy you can spend a few minutes rating some local businesses and improve your suggestibility score – which means better local suggestions the next time you need one.

One last note, we decided to keep this site as simple as possible so it would work on as many phones as possible not just the fancy ones.  We’ll be working on some more advanced applications for iPhone’s and Blackberry’s in the near future.

Thanks for listening!

theSUGGESTR integrates with Twitter

By admin, 31 January, 2009, No Comment

A few days ago we announced our integration with BrightKite, today we’re pleased to announce that we’ve implemented similar integration with microblogging giant Twitter.

We’ve implemented the same two types of integration for both Twitter & BrightKite. The first is our TwitterBot. This bot shows every rating that occurs on theSUGGESTR.com. Subscribe to this if you’d like to see all the ratings on theSUGGESTR.com.

Our other type of integration allows registered theSUGGESTR.com user’s connect their account with their Twitter account. Once connected we will automatically post a message to Twitter account for each rating you make so your followers can know what you think about the businesses you rate.

If you have ideas on how we can improve our integration with Twitter feel free to comment on this post. Also don’t forget for the latest on the development of theSUGGESTR.com you can follow us on Twitter.

theSUGGESTR.com integrates with BrightKite

By admin, 29 January, 2009, 1 Comment

We’re pleased to announce that we’ve implemented two types of integration with microblogging site BrightKite.   BrightKite is very similar to Twitter but it also has a location based concept that allows to see what’s going on around you and check-in at your current location.

We’ve implemented two types of integration.  The first is our BrightKite Bot.  This bot shows every rating that occurs on theSUGGESTR.com.  This way you can use BrightKite’s features to see what’s going on around you!

Our other type of integration allows registered theSUGGESTR.com user’s connect their account with their BrightKite account.  Once connected we will automatically post a message everytime you rate a place on theSUGGESTR.com letting your BrightKite followers see what you think of various businesses.

If you have ideas on how we can improve our integration with BrightKite feel free to comment on this post.

How-To-Use Search 3.0

By admin, 28 January, 2009, 1 Comment

With the introduction of our new Search 3.0 we thought a quick summary of how to best use it would be helpful.

To get started you can click on the Get Suggestions link or use the Search Toolbar at the top of any page. You have the ability to search in two different ways, “Search For” and “Search Like”.  These options give you the flexibility to control your own search, making it even more personalized.

Get Suggestions

The Search For feature will prompt you to enter in a keyword, category or tag that you wish to search for.  For example, you could search for:

  • bars
  • pizza
  • beer
  • Italian Food
  • Dry Cleaner

Based on what you type in we search our extensive database to match places that are described using that term.

The Search Like feature allows you to type in a place (one of the places on our site) and find places that are similar to that.  For example, lets say your favorite restaurant is Outback Steakhouse.  First select the Search Like from the drop down and then start typing in Outback Steakhouse.  Select the Outback steakhouse that you love and then type in where you wish to find another restaurant that is similar to that.  theSUGGESTR.com will then search and find restaurants that are similar in the area you searched in.  For each result, you can click the link to compare the two places to see why theSUGGESTR.com believes they are similar.

Once we have run your search you are then brought to our search result screen.  Our search result screen is split into 3 main components.

Search Result Screen

On the left you can filter and order your search.  You are able to filter by cost or by distance.  The order by section is different if you are a guest or a logged in user.  By registering and signing in we offer you the ability to sort the results by your predicted score or by the number of your friends that have rated a place.  To use the order by feature, just drag and drop the fields in any order you wish and we will sort in that order.  For example if you want to sort by Average Rating and then by Distance, you would drag the Average Rating to the top and then move the Distance right below it.  We let you determine any combination to sort your results.  Also on the left panel are common tags in the area you are searching and also similar tags to what you just searched for and you can click on any of these to search for that tag.

The center panel displays the results for each place.  theSUGGESTR.com provides you with the name, address and phone number of each place.  On the right hand side of each result you will see the average rating, total number of comments and category.  If you are logged in we will also provide you the ability to add the place to your wish list and also show you the number of comments/reviews by your friends.  A new feature that we recently added will also show you if a place is similar to another place you have already rated.  Just think about this, lets say you are searching for bars in Chicago, IL and as you are search a bar comes up and we tell you this bar is similar to your favorite bar in New York City.  Wouldn’t that be something you would want to know?  Well know you will and you don’t have to spend hours trying to figure that out.

The right panel of the search result screen displays the map of the area you are searching.  You can zoom in and move the map to any location you wish and run the search again just in the view of the map.

If you are already a member remember to keep rating places so we can continue to provide you with new and exciting places you will like.

If you are not a member yet, sign up today (its FREE!) and start rating places you have been to so that theSUGGESTR.com can give you a more personalized search experience.

Search 3.0 – Improved Local Suggestions

By admin, 23 January, 2009, 2 Comments

theSUGGESTR.com is pleased to announce Search 3.0, a new and more intuitive way to find what you are looking for on our website. To get started either click on the Get Suggestions link from our menu or just type in what and where you are looking for it in our search toolbar at the top of any page.

Get Suggestions

You may ask what makes our Search 3.0 any different then searching for a place on google, yahoo, or other sites. theSUGGESTR.com takes search to the next level by predicting how well you will like places and telling you WHY you will like the place. As a guest our search is limited in what we can provide you, but by registering and becoming a member of theSUGGESTR.com (which is FREE to do!) we can offer you a much more personalized search that is tailored just for you.

Think about this…. when searching other sites for an Italian Restaurant in New York City you will be displayed with tons of reviews for each place and when looking through these will have no clue if you can trust the reviews you are reading. What theSUGGESTR.com does is let you know how similar a user is to you while you are reading the reviews. Also by being able to sort your results by the ones we predict you will like and even search the comments by users who are similar to you, this allows you to find a place that you can pretty much be sure that you will enjoy. Our map allows you to zoom in and pan to any area you wish to and then you can search and find places that are within the view of the map, this gives you the power to control the exact location you are looking for.

Personalized Recommendations

Search 3.0 was built to save you time and bring you results that are just for YOU! If you are a member of theSUGGESTR.com already just keep rating places to help us find more places you will like, if you are not member then sign up today!

Keep an eye out for our next post which will be a more detailed How-To Use Search 3.0 blog!

theSUGGESTR.com Announces New Features to Enhance Local Suggestion

By admin, 20 January, 2009, No Comment

We’re please to let you know we’ve just updated our site with the biggest changes and improvements we’ve made since our inception. For those of you that are not familiar, theSUGGESTR.com goes beyond Local 2.0 to what we’d like to think of as Local 3.0. Unlike other sites that require you to search through 1,000’s of reviews to find businesses you want to try, theSUGGESTR.com as we like to say goes “Beyond Search to Suggestion”. Our unique algorithm allows us to predict how well you will like a business based on your own tastes. With over 200,000 ratings we are able to quantify how similar your tastes are to other users as well as how similar two businesses are (based on who likes them and who doesn’t). This information makes theSUGGESTR.com smarter than any other local search site.

Over the next few weeks we’ll be diving into details about the new great features we’ve launched, but for those who can’t wait here is an overview of some of the features we are excited about.

  • Over 200,000 Ratings – We know have over 200,000 ratings from both our members as well as other data sources making our suggestions more accurate then ever.
  • Local Search 3.0 – Our personalized search features allow users to get search results personalized for THEIR tastes. We’ve also introduced the ability to see WHY we suggest a business so you can be confident that the suggestion is right for you. This along with a number of other improvements (see our upcoming blog for more information) make your suggestions more useful than ever before.
  • Search Like – Search like is our new type of search that allows a user to find businesses in one city that are “like” a business they love in a totally different city. Imagine, your from New York and McSorely’s Ale House is your absolute favorite bar. You find yourself in Los Angeles on business craving a bar that you’ll love. Using our Search Like feature you can look for a bar that is liked by those who share a liking for McSorely’s.
  • Twitter & Brighkite Integration – We’ve created both Twitter and BrightKite bots so you can keep up with all the new ratings on theSUGGESTR.com. We’ve also allowed you to link your Twitter and/or BrightKite accounts to your theSUGGESTR.com account. By doing so we’ll automatically post your suggestions to your account so you can let your friends know about the places you love without doing any work.
  • Mobile Site – Our new and improved Mobile Site allows you to get personalized suggestions quickly and easily while on the road. No special phone required, just something with a browser. You can even rate places to improve your suggestibility.
  • FireEagle Integration - FireEagle is a service provided by Yahoo! that allows you to share your location with multiple websites. Our integration allows you to update your location (and notify other applications) as well use your current location to make your searches (from both your desktop and mobile phone) more quicker and easier.
  • EmailBack - One of simplest but most exciting new features is EmailBack. Email back allows you to send an email to us with your search and get back the same personalized suggestions in a quick reply.

Check back here frequently over the next few weeks to learn more about each of the features above. Also please don’t hesitate to comment on our blog about features you like, don’t like or want to see.

Thanks.