Using "Wisdom of Crowd" to Discover Restaurants

Professional food critics have always been giving their recommendations andratings for restaurants for a long time now. But, now with Web 2.0 driven by thewisdom of crowds, we’ve begun to trust our friends and peers in making our nextdining decision. Today’s Web 2.0 world is all about user generated content, which sometimesdrives editorial content. When people visit new or familiar restaurants and areextremely impressed with the food, service and ambience; they want to talk aboutit. They write on blogs and review sites to share it with netizens. Also, if something’s really disappointing, they write about that too. These users’comments are valued most by netizens. This collection of professional & individualuser reviews aggregates to be the community opinion, i.e., the wisdom of crowds.Searches are getting simpler for diners & foodies as they can find out what othersare saying about a restaurant before they choose to eat there. With the web full of restaurant recommendations and reviews based on the diner’s experience –hunting for restaurant reviews has surely become the first step while choosing arestaurant.Restaurant search engines

like BooRah have an algorithm thatcaptures this wisdom of crowds to bring it back to the users. With user-generatedreviews, people can make an informed decision. Say you read ten reviews about arestaurant, of which seven are very good and only three user reviewers showdissatisfaction; it still assures that you are more than likely to find good food.BooRah’s semantic scoring engine analyses what people have written andgenerates specific scores for food, service and ambience from their sentiments.A diner reads reviews and chooses a restaurant. And whatever the dinerexperiences in the restaurant’s food, service and ambience is back on the net asyet another review. This wisdom of crowds directs netizens to the perfectrestaurant recommendations. Therestaurant search engine

encourages users towrite their own review, rate restaurants and submit updated information aboutlocal restaurants. In this way, local restaurant patrons help to keep theinformation current and can post their opinions about their dining experiences.Many web sites offer restaurant information, online reservations and reviews, butBooRah, the vertical search engine searches the Web and compiles all reviewsthat have been written about each restaurant, creates a summary review andrating, and allows users to easily access the restaurant reviews. These searchengines are tech platforms built on user generated content, and they add a levelof user-friendliness along with aggregating more content from across the Web. The growing search engine technology is also helping local business owners tracktheir reviews reputation online and capitalize on the growing trend of user-generated restaurant recommendations. It automatically summarizes a collectionof online reviews from bloggers, professional critics and consumers, and allowsconsumers to search restaurants based on their personal preferences. Theyspruce up the search for good restaurants by capturing the community vibe andsocial essence of existing online groups, and comparing these results to anindividual's search criteria; thereby delivering unsurpassed relevance with the