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BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE: Business Week ebiz | |||||||||||||||||
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Zagat.com: Much to Feast on -- But Add a Pinch of E-Commerce The restaurant reviewer rates highly for accuracy and number of eateries sampled. But the site passes up chances to build community and consumer business It's an article of faith among restaurant reviewers: Never review a new place during its first week. Better to let the place work out the kinks. But when the reviewer's subject is, instead of a restaurant, the overhauled Zagat.com, why wait? After all, they dish it out, so they can take it, right? Actually, they can. Zagat.com has its shaky aspects, but happily enough they don't spoil the good impression made by the site's solid cooking. Zagat Survey has been in the eatery review business for 20 years. By now, the reactions and ratings contained in its 34 reddish-brown-covered city restaurant guides (plus two national books) have become the lingua franca of popular conversation about dining. The Web site, like the books, draws its core content from a claimed 100,000 volunteer reviewers who tell Zagat about their favorite (and least favorite) haunts. The sheer size of the sample is the best thing about both Zagat and Zagat.com. The reason is the simplest truth of polling: the bigger the sample, the better the accuracy. And the Internet should only make Zagat better, as the ease of submitting comments brings more people into the panel. EVEN A LUNCH-ONLY PLACE. Zagat has had a Web site for some time, but this week's effort marks the first time Zagat has blended E-commerce with content. The result isn't too surprising: Zagat.com is very good at basic content, because its books have been very good at that for years. But Zagat.com is much weaker in areas like shopping and community. These elements are crucial to a well-rounded commercial Web site, but they play little role in Zagat's offline business. I love this reviewing-the-reviewers bit, so I'll use Zagat's own format. First, I'm lifting their 1-30 rating system. Just as Zagat rates restaurants for food, service, and decor, I'll rate the site for content, commerce, community, and ease of use. For content, I'll give Zagat.com a 27. Never, ever play stump-the-chump with this site. It's simply too deep. I tested it in the two areas I know best, northern New Jersey and metro Baltimore, and was astounded to find restaurants I thought they'd never have. For example, I like a 30-seat lunch-only place called Phoebe Snow in an old train station in Mountain Lakes, N.J. It's in Zagat.com, right down to the correct observation about what's best about Snow's: the hot, oily popovers. The place is also closed for renovations, which Zagat didn't know, but that's forgivable. I took off one point for an erratic mapping feature designed to give directions to restaurants. Phoebe Snow, for example, is in the middle of Mountain Lakes (the town) but not in the middle of Mountain Lake (the body of water).
Zagat.com also does a solid job of using technology to make the site more useful than the books. Especially fine is the function that lets Zagat.com suggest restaurants that resemble each other. For example, if I like the Milton Inn outside Baltimore (and I do -- it was once named one of America's top 50 restaurants), I can search with a single click for similar restaurants within a few miles. Then I nicked the site by a point because the related-search feature isn't fully refined yet. The site divides restaurants by too many characteristics defined too narrowly. For example, a search for restaurants like the Milton Inn didn't turn up The Oregon Grille. Considering that the chef who put the Milton Inn on the map now runs the nearby competitor, and both do American cuisine, they probably should be listed in each other's searches. For commerce, I give Zagat.com a 10. The best sites integrate commerce and content seamlessly without giving the impression that a good review is for sale. Zagat's independence isn't in doubt, but the commerce isn't really there. The site has no ads now. The company plans to explore partnerships but says it doesn't expect to run banner ads. The merchandise available is pretty much limited to Zagat-branded goods such as books, hats, and CD-ROMs. Zagat's says it will probably add more goods over time. Considering all the things that real gourmands might buy in pursuit of their passion, it's a missed opportunity for both consumers and Zagat itself.
For ease of use, the site gets a solid 20. It's easy enough to get around, and it has nice features. For example, a "sounds like" search lets you find eateries whose precise name you don't know. But as I said before, the site divides restaurants into too many narrow categories, hindering simple associations. Like a new restaurant, Zagat.com's flaws are kinks that can be worked out. I'll check back in a few months. I expect that much of what I've griped about will be fixed. But for now, it's curious that Zagat delivered a site that lacks one critical ingredient: a grasp of how a common passion can bond a virtual community. Now that I think of it, found any good restaurants lately? Tim Mullaney covers electronic commerce for Business Week _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ |
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WEB POINTERS Read our review, then try the site: Zagat.com | ||||||||||||
