Urbanspoon shaking right along

Urbanspoon is one of the earliest "locator" apps that I put on my iPhone. It offered up a pretty unique (at the time -- this was, of course, before "shake to undo") "shake to find" feature that solved the problem of a big group asking, "Where should we eat tonight?" Apparently it's still doing pretty well -- the app has just reached the milestone of half a billion shakes. Additionally, the website that the app was based on has been acquired by Citysearch, and the app has been installed more than 9 million times. That's pretty impressive. It's also a great example of how the iPhone's unique interface can really drive attention to a bigger brand.

Unfortunately, there's no information from Urbanspoon yet about what's coming in the future. This is exactly the kind of app (location-based information) that might not survive the jump onto the new iPad platform, so it'll be interesting to hear what they're planning to do going forward. However, as long as people are hungry, there will always be room for a food-finding app. It's good to see that Urbanspoon is still kicking.

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Source: http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/23/urbanspoon-half-billion-sha…

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Urbanspoon is one of the earliest "locator" apps that I put on my iPhone. It offered up a pretty unique (at the time -- this was, of...

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FoodieInDisguise

I have been an Urbanspoon user and supporter since their app was released! Easy to use and as a food blogger, they gave me the tools necessary to integrate my blog into Urbanspoon and vice versa. They also make it easy to add new restaurants to the database as well. Alot of users are also using Yelp, but I have never been a fan of their questionable practices. I find the information on the restaurant alone is more accurate and the reviewers on Urbanspoon are committed to giving accurate reviews. Go Urbanspoon!

March 24 2010 at 8:52 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mystic

Yelp does not even come close to Urbanspoon (at least in Seattle and Utah). Urbanspoon provides more accurate information, better user reviews, and even pulls reviews from newspapers and blogs.

March 24 2010 at 4:05 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Julien

This article is a non story. Not all apps are going to go to the iPad, just like there will be iPad apps that won't have an iPhone/IPod touch version. Just because Urbanspoon doesn't make an iPad version it doesn't mean it's all over for the app now. Cmon TUAW, is it a slow news day or what?

March 24 2010 at 2:23 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

adam_____

IMO, Yelp is way better. This is just my preference...

March 24 2010 at 1:58 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Merlin

I had initially wrote about how it would a travesty to port something thats clearly such a great PHONE application to the iPad platform. My thinking was if I need a spur of the moment restaurant, I'll reach for my phone before whipping out my iPad. As I was about to click 'Add Comment' - I suddenly saw the light...

It occured to me, why wouldn't it successfully be made into an even better app on the iPad? The current slot machine system taking a quarter of the screen, with a map your specific location and the closest places within a 2 mile radius are shown as pins that you can click to get info on taking up the quarter of the screen next to the slots. The bottom half of the screen, once a selection is made, could show a google street view shot or user submitted photos, as well as any posted reviews on the selected restaurant. If they managed to take UrbanSpoon to the next level in this way, I think it would do quite well on the new platform. In fact, I would go as far as to say I would more likely go to grab my iPad then my iPhone at that point instead when looking for a place to go eat...

March 24 2010 at 1:47 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Merlin's comment

mikehild

I think the main difference is something like this fits well as a mobile app, and I don't think most people would consider an iPad to be a mobile device in the same way. I take my iPhone everywhere with me, but if I got an iPad I would leave it home most of the time since it's simply too big to carry around everywhere.

But then again, many of the ladies I know have purses so big they could easily fit several iPads in it in addition to everything else they have in there so maybe for them it could be a mobile device after all!

March 25 2010 at 12:19 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mel

If you like Urbanspoon, you should check out my app Local LTD at
www.melman101.com

It's similiar to UrbanSpoon but allows you to enter in your OWN places manually, as well as have restaurants around you.

Have a great day everyone!

Sincerely,
Mel

March 24 2010 at 1:15 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

caleb

I'm not sure why you'd want to see a tablet specific version of Urbanspoon.

March 24 2010 at 1:14 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Skyhook.

March 24 2010 at 1:06 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply