|
By now, most people know what Zagat's is: A highly, even addictively, readable series of restaurant-review books that are based on the votes of individual diners. Consumers rank each joint's food, service, and decor on a scale of 1 to 30, and are discriminating enough that even Manhattan's most famous places usually score no higher than about 27. The idea was a natural for the Web because people could cast their votes more easily than by sending in a paper ballot, making the sample of reviewers bigger and the ratings more accurate. And sorting restaurants by type, location, and quality is much easier to do with software than in a book. That suggested it might yield a better experience, too. But when the site launched in May, 1999, its flaws included a notable lack of e-commerce, thin coverage, and few community forums where people could chat or otherwise vent about restaurants and eating. All of those areas are better now, earning the site better marks on its own 1 to 30 scale than it got last May. "GRANDPA DIED YOUNG." First, the content is better because Zagat.com covers more cities than it did and has added more Web-only features to make the site fun. My personal favorite is an outtakes area of user comments deleted from Zagat reviews after the company's lawyers got a look at them. "A petri dish gone horribly, horribly wrong," "Grandma cooked like this. Grandpa died young," and "Waitresses trained by Joseph Stalin" are typical examples. But I also like more serious current highlights such as a special guide to Sydney dining for Olympic travelers. It holds out the hope of more specials to come, keeping the site fresh and attuned to what's on people's minds. It's easy to imagine special content features on cities where the Super Bowl or World Series might be held, or finding a way to highlight Washington before the next President's inauguration and so on. Right now Zagat.com is also highlighting a city-by-city guide to sidewalk dining. It's a good sign that someone is doing more than just the minimum to make the site worth a repeat visit. Best of all, the site now covers 32 cities in the U.S., compared with 22 when I reviewed it last. Newcomers include major business centers like Dallas and Houston, though coverage of midsize cities is still scanty and the South, other than Florida, has apparently lost the war for the civil attentions of Zagat.com reviewers. There are also neat lists of best restaurants in every town to let busy people and out-of-towners cut to the chase rather than digging through a multistep sorting process to find just the right place. Finally, I still like the software that lets people search for a restaurant similar to another one they like. And it works better now. Last year, I zinged Zagat for not being able to associate the Milton Inn, a suburban Baltimore restaurant once rated among the nation's 50 best, with a nearly identical establishment nearby opened by the Milton Inn's ex-chef. This year, it made the association smoothly. Overall, Zagat gets a 28 for content, up from 27 last year. DOT-COM PARTNERS. E-commerce -- remember e-commerce? -- is where Zagat has made the biggest improvement since it scored a measly 10 the last time. Back then, about all you could buy at Zagat.com was a Zagat book, or maybe a handy coffee cup. Now the offering is much more sophisticated, if still a little narrower than I might prefer. The key has been sharp use of online partnerships with dot-coms. You can make reservations through Zagat's now at some restaurants, thanks to a partnership with Opentable.com. You can use software built into the site by Mambo.com to invite friends to a dinner party at a given joint, track the RSVPs, even send a map and directions to your pals. And you can buy gift certificates to hundreds of restaurants nationwide thanks to a deal with GiftCertificates.com. Together, the changes make the site much more useful. A year ago, I thought the e-commerce at Zagat could exploit users' love of food and eating more generally, to sell things like high-end cooking supplies and maybe gourmet food. In a different financial market, I might still like to see that. But going slower, and sticking to restaurant-related commerce for now, is probably smart. It's certainly enough to bump Zagat.com's commerce score up to a respectable 20. Zagat still has the attributes it did last year: strong coverage of the dining scene in the cities it does cover, plus easy, intuitive software for picking a restaurant that fits your mood and budget. But the new ingredients add more zip to the stew. E-Business department editor and restaurant buff Mullaney has gained 10 pounds since joining Business Week in New York last year |
