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It's really nice that folks with a new product or service like to bring stuff to our attention. In the spirit of being forthright, we'd advise you that you should have a fairly complete/polished product before doing so. Luddites like us (well, specifically this writer) aren't in much of a position to speculate on how cool something will be.
Case in point, a representative of Menuism, a newish Web site that aims to let you "rate what you ate and find great food with personal recommendations," alerted us to the venture's existence. Unfortunately, we came away unimpressed.
Menuism seems to be attempting to bridge the gap between social networking and group opinion sites, a.k.a., "Yelp meets MySpace." There are some interesting features: you can designate friends and track their culinary experiences. You can earn points through participating and can "spend" them for various purposes. You can post photos of what you eat. You can set up a "to try" list to help keep track of places you intend to go. And, not only can you only rate restaurants, you can rate individual dishes.
Okay -- rating by DISH? We're all about "digging deep," but that's taking it a little too far; in our opinion, that's what the review section is for.
Some of the features we mentioned may have potential once the technical bugs are ironed out. There are floating pop-ups that can't be fully seen because they are partially blocked by pull-down menus. There are some weird layouts on the photos screen. Some of the general interface is non-intuitive.
But more than those bugs, all this button mashing and categorizing when talking about restaurants seems to turn something we love -- talking about food -- into something overly clinical.
After the jump: more critiques and we throw stones from within our glass house
Perhaps most importantly, Menuism will only be useful once they get themselves some content! There are very few ratings and even fewer reviews. That's the problem with these user-driven sites -- they need to grow organically, and there's a certain critical mass that needs to be reached before it can be very useful. Yelp is useful -- there will be strong opinions about pretty much anywhere we want to go in town. Menuism has slim pickings regarding San Francisco eateries at this point.
Some of the copywriting on the site is suspect as well -- important when you are trying to convince others to be your content providers for the fun of it. When folks are trying to see what you're all about, poorly written FAQs ain't gonna help. For example, from the FAQ:
What cities are supported? At this time, we support any US city. If there aren't any restaurants in your city, be the first to add them! We'll be expanding outside the US once things are rolling smoothly.
Hmmm, we know they didn't mean it like this, but that text implies that there are U.S. cities with no restaurants in them. Huh? Change the "in" to a "from" and we'll get you. Little things aren't dealbreakers, but they have importance, and (ironic coming from SFist, we know), copy editing and copy writing count.
Look -- this might turn out to be cool; we're not prognosticators. And it might be fun if you're into Internet communities like Yelp and Chowhound and you want to have more posts than anyone else in this new forum. Blaze a trail, if you will, become a "Menuism" big shot. But, to be frank, right now it's not useful to San Franciscans. We honestly wish these folks huge success, and we're happy to check it out again in a few months to see if things have improved, should we think of it. It won't be at the top of our list, though.
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YumGuide.com is better!
I live in the Sunset.
Menuism.com? The nearest restaurant listed doesn't exist (nor did it ever exist). Of the nearest 50 restaurants, only 2 have reviews.
YumGuide.com? The 3 closest restaurants listed are 1.3, 2.8, and 4.0 miles away.
No thanks, I'm going back to Yelp.
Hey Jeremy,
Thanks for your thorough opinions about the site. We hear your points. The site's got some rough edges to be sure, and those will get addressed through constructive feedback.
Our users love the site because we focus only on the dining experience - this allows those who really care about where and what they eat to better express themselves and connect with other foodies. The ability to rate dishes has been one of the things our food-focused users love the most about the site, and many use it as a personal food journal. Call it a difference in taste, if you will.
Additionally, thanks for the free copyediting.
-John, co-founder, Menuism.com
hmmm...
this is fun.
could sfist start doing weekly (or so) reviews of local web companies, start ups, 2.0's, blog, etc.
it would be interesting to get your feedback and all the users feedback and opinions on the local web companies.
shamelessly, i'm working with a startup, and would love the free publicity... ;o)