The idea is straightforward. Digg (or HN) <i>style</i> voting for local bars and restaurants, see what's popular now.<p>All vote's are upvotes, there are no stars and a vote means "I'd go here again". Users can vote for the same place weekly. Content is submitted by users, not pre-populated but I've integrated the Google Search API to make searching for and adding venues easier.<p>I've finally managed to get a demo out for testing - it's London only at the moment (split into 150+ neighbourhoods) and there's still lots to do. That said, I'd be interested to get your impressions and thoughts on the idea and execution at this stage.<p>Obviously there will be a critical mass issue but right now I'm concentrating on making a product worthy of mass consumption.<p>http://www.thebuzz.at/
I'm a little confused as to the workflow. Here's what i did, assuming I wanted to vote on a place I like:<p>1. Enter "fernandez & wells" into the name box. Hit search.
2. Two results are shown. Both have what look like votes already (+4, +5 icons). But my only action is "add this place." Where do I vote?
3. When I click to add the place, I'm presented with a big form, which I don't care about. I click "add place" anyway, and after clicking a couple of times with nothing happening, i realize it's trying to get me to select a category. I select a category (restaurant), click add again, and get an error "invalid username or userid in get_avatar"<p>So... hiccups aside, seems like a good idea. Execution-wise, streamline, streamline, streamline.
I like it! I wish you had my city (Los Angeles). I'd suggest adding downvotes, but instead of having upvotes and downvotes affect a single score, like Digg/Bury, maybe have 2 scores, one for Buzz, and another for Kill, so we can see a particular bar had, say, 20 Buzzes, and 5 Kills.<p>Also, do the Buzz counts wear off after a certain amount of time? I couldn't tell if they did, but it would be useful to see that a bar had 20 Buzzes last week, and only 10 this week.
Very well done in terms of UI. I like the concept. The problem comes down to: why will I come back on a fairly regular basis? Not sure if that is every week, every month,etc. but it should be fairly regularly.
Nice concept and great implementation for an Alpha version... some suggestions<p>1. I searched for Curry and got 4 restaurants. If possible, you might wanna change the labels design on the map, they don't stand out on the map<p>2. People visiting your site might also wanna search for restaurants of specific cuisine. So you can think about changing the label name "Place Name"<p>3. You can put the tag "Discover and share new places" on the top<p>All the best :)
(UX point of view comment)<p>Hmm, the design is inspired by www.kontain.com? It's well done though. A few UX quirks here and there, but most of it is fine.<p>Maybe that nice image and copy on the login/register page should be on the homepage when a user isn't logged in? I'm thinking it could convert more in some way. (though the content is also good, you'd have to sacrifice some other part of the page)
I'd be interested to see a service like this track what is happening real time. So, imagine a user goes to a bar and texts/emails/iPhone app, whatever, that would buzz up that local for the night. Then users could look to see what is going on in real time. That may be what you are doing here, if so, I would make it more clear. As it is, it seems like a review site, almost like Urbanspoon.
Question, if a restaurant gets on it once, will it ever be able to get on again?<p>If there's a "buzz" at a restaurant, there will be a lot of people there, and it will be harder to find a seat. Of course, it'll be a good sign if you have this problem, but it may be something to watch out for.
Like it.
The header part is to big in my opinion. You should come up with a nice slogan or a line to describe what your project is about.<p>How do you do approach new customers? What is the business model behind it?
this absolutely has to be a mobile app--the only time im ever looking for a place to go to is when im already out and the present venue is lame. for 20-somethings, venue is rarely planned ahead of time, and we usually hit multiple venues.<p>as far as venue discovery, again, its something that is gonna come up in conversation--"oh hey let me check my iphone!" Though, I might allow you to send me weekly spam of hot spots and their specials, correlated with your value add. hey, that's a nice business model...