alt Hacker NewsNicely done. I think from a product perspective it is interesting that:
- Humans really value authentic experiences. And more so IRL experiences. People's words about a restaurant matter more than the star rating to me.
- There is only one reason to go somewhere: 4.5 star reason. But there are 10 different reasons to not go: Too far, not my cuisine, too expensive for my taste. So the context is what really matters.
- Small is better. Product wise, scale always is a problem, because the needs of the product will end up discriminating against a large minority. You need it to be decentralized and organic, with communities that are quirky.
All this is, somehow, anethma to google maps or yelp's algorithm. But I don't understand why it is _so_ bad — just try searching for 'salad' — and be amazed how it will recommend a white table cloth restaurant in the same breath as chipotle.
There are many millions that want to use the product _more_ if it was personalized. Yet somehow its not.
> People's words about a restaurant matter more than the star rating to me.
I find that both offer an incredibly poor signal. I can usually get a much better idea of the quality of the place by looking at pictures of the food (especially the ones submitted by normal users right after their plate arrives at the table). It's more time consuming to scroll through pictures manually than to look at the stars, but I'm convinced it's a much better way to find quality.
Maybe that could be a good angle for this kind of tool. At least until this process becomes more popular and the restaurants try to game that too by using dishonest photography.