Public Embraces Restaurant Reviewing Real People Doing Real Reviews: Local Knowledge Shared Online
Budding food critics are increasingly sharing their knowledge online through a new Australian-based national social networking website aimed at people’s personal dining experiences.
Byron Bay, Australia, February 14, 2009 --(PR.com)-- Australian website – www.mytaste.com.au -- is attracting users from each State and Territory who then build a personal profile similar in concept to Facebook and MySpace but use their profiles to share reviews and opinions, add friends, upload photos and even post video reviews.
myTaste is the brainchild of friends and now site Directors Melissa Bridson and Brent Crysell who first hit on the concept two years ago after a disappointing experience at a local Northern Rivers restaurant that has since closed down.
Byron Bay-based Miss Bridson then put her graphic design skills together with Mr Crysell’s business know-how and brought on board another friend, Melbourne-based IT specialist Leigh Rolfe to bring myTaste to life.
Miss Bridson said she believed myTaste would do for restaurants and cafes what MySpace did for musicians.
“It really is an integrative website where all manner of restaurants and cafes will find the demographic that suits them,” she said.
“Being able to share online is, quick, easy and fun so businesses will find people chatting about or reviewing everything about their great dining experience and so promoting their product,” she said.
Mr Crysell said initially he regarded the concept as a social experiment, however, the site’s growth in recent months had clearly proven it to be an increasingly socially popular alternative for lovers of good food and dining experiences.
“myTaste has turned out to be the ultimate way to identify the best dining experiences in Australia,” Mr Crysell said.
“And it’s not only being used by locals at an interstate level but also people travelling from overseas who perhaps have friends in Australia who have told them about the site and want a quick, easy and reliable way of finding what they want when they get here.”
In addition to the fun and social aspects of the site, myTaste also provides a search function that guides diners to restaurants and cafes by location, food type or rating and includes contact details for each venue, maps on how to get there and even a Google street view.
On each restaurant’s page, users can also access information on alternate dining options nearby.
Miss Bridson described myTaste as an extension of local word-of-mouth knowledge that is usually hard to come by unless you really know the town or city.
“I’ve been to many places on holiday and not had any real knowledge of where to dine and, depending on whom you ask, the recommendation may not be to your taste and you end up disappointed,” she said.
“It’s having the ability to access local knowledge and find great new places to dine that really excites me about myTaste. And it’s not only fun writing reviews but also reading them. Some of them are really quite funny.”
IT specialist Mr Rolfe said the growth of myTaste was now also providing restaurateurs the opportunity to promote their businesses to the online reviewing community by allowing them to claim their page, upload their logo, menu, press, photos, website address and other features.
“I really believe a lot of dining venues will realise the value of having an online forum where friends are sharing dining experiences on a daily basis,” Mr Rolfe said.
“There’s really no limit to what you can do or say provided it stays within the Terms and Conditions listed on the site. So, if you choose to really critique a place in depth and have an open discussion about it, or just write a quick recommendation for your friends you can.”
Miss Bridson said that as myTaste continued to grow, she expected the “Top 100” restaurants feature to become one of the most interesting facets of the website.
“The user-rating system identifies the highest rated restaurants as voted by real people,” she said.
“The Top 100 will have the honour of being paraded on myTaste as determined by the people and I think that gives it a lot of credibility. It just totally takes the guess work out of trying new places.”
For media inquiries please contact Melissa Bridson:
melissa@mytaste.com.au
0402 214 246
For business inquiries please contact Brent Crysell:
brent@mytaste.com.au
0427 651 618
###
myTaste is the brainchild of friends and now site Directors Melissa Bridson and Brent Crysell who first hit on the concept two years ago after a disappointing experience at a local Northern Rivers restaurant that has since closed down.
Byron Bay-based Miss Bridson then put her graphic design skills together with Mr Crysell’s business know-how and brought on board another friend, Melbourne-based IT specialist Leigh Rolfe to bring myTaste to life.
Miss Bridson said she believed myTaste would do for restaurants and cafes what MySpace did for musicians.
“It really is an integrative website where all manner of restaurants and cafes will find the demographic that suits them,” she said.
“Being able to share online is, quick, easy and fun so businesses will find people chatting about or reviewing everything about their great dining experience and so promoting their product,” she said.
Mr Crysell said initially he regarded the concept as a social experiment, however, the site’s growth in recent months had clearly proven it to be an increasingly socially popular alternative for lovers of good food and dining experiences.
“myTaste has turned out to be the ultimate way to identify the best dining experiences in Australia,” Mr Crysell said.
“And it’s not only being used by locals at an interstate level but also people travelling from overseas who perhaps have friends in Australia who have told them about the site and want a quick, easy and reliable way of finding what they want when they get here.”
In addition to the fun and social aspects of the site, myTaste also provides a search function that guides diners to restaurants and cafes by location, food type or rating and includes contact details for each venue, maps on how to get there and even a Google street view.
On each restaurant’s page, users can also access information on alternate dining options nearby.
Miss Bridson described myTaste as an extension of local word-of-mouth knowledge that is usually hard to come by unless you really know the town or city.
“I’ve been to many places on holiday and not had any real knowledge of where to dine and, depending on whom you ask, the recommendation may not be to your taste and you end up disappointed,” she said.
“It’s having the ability to access local knowledge and find great new places to dine that really excites me about myTaste. And it’s not only fun writing reviews but also reading them. Some of them are really quite funny.”
IT specialist Mr Rolfe said the growth of myTaste was now also providing restaurateurs the opportunity to promote their businesses to the online reviewing community by allowing them to claim their page, upload their logo, menu, press, photos, website address and other features.
“I really believe a lot of dining venues will realise the value of having an online forum where friends are sharing dining experiences on a daily basis,” Mr Rolfe said.
“There’s really no limit to what you can do or say provided it stays within the Terms and Conditions listed on the site. So, if you choose to really critique a place in depth and have an open discussion about it, or just write a quick recommendation for your friends you can.”
Miss Bridson said that as myTaste continued to grow, she expected the “Top 100” restaurants feature to become one of the most interesting facets of the website.
“The user-rating system identifies the highest rated restaurants as voted by real people,” she said.
“The Top 100 will have the honour of being paraded on myTaste as determined by the people and I think that gives it a lot of credibility. It just totally takes the guess work out of trying new places.”
For media inquiries please contact Melissa Bridson:
melissa@mytaste.com.au
0402 214 246
For business inquiries please contact Brent Crysell:
brent@mytaste.com.au
0427 651 618
###
Contact
Mytaste.com.au
Brent Crysell
+61427651618
www.mytaste.com.au
Brent Crysell
+61427651618
www.mytaste.com.au
Contact
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