

Just launched restaurant recommendation site - feedback? - aaron_k
http://qmato.com

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aaron_k
Qmato is the first web/mobile site to provide truly occasion-appropriate,
personalized restaurant recommendations. Qmato solves a common problem that no
other site or app can: “What is the best restaurant for me, for this
particular occasion?” We do this by scoring restaurants on over 250 different
sentiment metrics drawn from an analysis of millions of reviews and reports -
so unlike other services, Qmato actually knows what each restaurant is like,
and what is _specifically_ good about each restaurant. This means we are able
provide recommendations that are truly tailored to the occasion (and to your
taste as well).

Here’s an example: Let’s say you want to eat outside and enjoy the weather.
You don't just want a place that has any old outdoor seating, even if it has a
high rating and even if your social network has Liked it a lot. That's all
well and good, but it doesn’t help you identify what you really want: a place
that has really excellent outdoor seating. A couple tables on the sidewalk of
a busy street won’t cut it - you want something more pleasant and secluded,
where you can really enjoy the outdoors. Because Qmato scores each restaurant
on the pleasantness of its outdoor seating, we can actually recommend a place
where you can really enjoy the weather - and that you’ll truly love.

Or take breakfast - when you go out for breakfast, you don't just want a place
that serves breakfast (whatever else might be appealing about it) - you want
to go to a place that serves a _really excellent_ breakfast. Knowing that
“this restaurant has a high rating and it also serves breakfast” isn’t enough.
What if the high rating results from other features of the restaurant, and
their breakfast is just mediocre? Qmato actually scores each restaurant on its
breakfast quality, and will recommend the places that have the _best
breakfast_.

Or even atmosphere - other services don’t provide any way of identifying the
best places for a quiet, intimate meal or a fun lively one. Because we score
each restaurant on over a hundred different atmosphere properties, Qmato makes
it easy to find the places that are the best fit for whatever atmosphere
you’re looking for.

In total, Qmato gives users direct, one-click / one-touch access to great
recommendations for over 30 different kinds of restaurant experiences. Or, if
you want more control, Qmato’s natural language keyword search lets you
describe anything you’re looking for - atmosphere descriptions, service,
price, value, food qualities, recommended items, etc. (Oh yes, Qmato also
provides carefully curated item recommendations, so you won’t have to puzzle
over the menu when you arrive.)

On Qmato, there is no need to dig through hundreds or thousands reviews to
find a good place, like you’d have to on Yelp. And unlike other restaurant
recommendation products (like Ness or CleverSense), Qmato recommends
restaurants that will actually provide the kind of experience you're looking
for. That’s something these other services simply can’t do.

Now, we know that occasion isn't the only thing that matters. That’s why we
developed Qmetric - our proprietary ranking algorithm that optimally combines
the occasion category score with overall rating, general preferences you can
set explicitly (e.g. quiet, good value, creative food, vegetarian friendly,
etc.), and preferences machine-learned from your ratings. Qmetric ensures that
for every search, your results are always sorted in the all-around optimal
way, and that you always get great recommendations.

Qmato lists over 800,000 restaurants nationwide. Currently, Qmato is available
as a website and a mobile-optimized website at qmato.com. Native apps are
under development.

Any feedback would be much appreciated!

Aaron

