Ness, The Restaurant Discovery App, Adds Crucial Mapping Feature

I made heavy use of Ness's restaurant-finding iOS app during a recent trip through the East Coast, because lots of places are still sadly short on Yelp reviews, and I wanted a quick way to find the best local spots to eat. While I got some good results, I would have been all over a new feature that Ness has just pushed out in an update today: maps.Yeah, another restaurant app with a map. You're not shocked, I'm guessing, but you should take a closer look because of the data that Ness offers. It uses machine learning technology that uses a variety of social signals that you provide it from Facebook, Foursquare and Twitter, as well as your behavior and other data, to figure out which places you'll like the most. The result is often what you're hoping for -- suggestions for great places that you might not have seen on other restaurant discovery apps, or anywhere else for that matter.]]>

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Foursquare Adds Restaurant Menus, What About Food Check Ins?

Less than a week after unveiling the Explore section of its website, Foursquare announced a nice addition — restaurant menus.Foursquare says it has partnered with startup SinglePlatform to add menus and pricing information for almost 250,000 restaurants in Explore. This seems like a pretty natural addition, and a way to make Explore a viable alternative to a site like Yelp. ]]>

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