Processing .....please wait.. 
The article has been forwarded.... 
News >> Technology >>
Google now recommends places via Hotpot
By siliconindia
|
Tuesday, 16 November 2010, 21:29 IST
San Francisco: Google has commenced its new search engine that makes location based recommendations. The search results cover local shops, restaurants, theatre among others.
Lior Ron, Product Manager said in a blog post, "We're making local search results for places on Google more personal, relevant and trustworthy. When you rate places you like, we'll tell you about other related places you'll love."
With location based searches becoming the next big thing, Google has seen to it that its not left behind. It has quickly upgraded to Places, Images, Latitudes and other services with location features and now brings the Hotpot.
Hotpot puts users' ratings and reviews of more than 50 million spots around the world. Adding a personal touch to the whole concept is reviews and ratings from users, who are encouraged to do so from their Google-linked profile. Likes and dislikes of the users are remembered and used in the recommendation engine.
With a user friendly UI, Hotpot scores where Places lacked. Its fresh presentations appeal both visually and functionally. There are levels in the search. First it presents high impact data like star ratings and images of each place in a grid format without confusing with too many details. Then if the user intends to move to next level, he can dig down to other details such as phone numbers or URL.
Hotpot also allows you to maintain a separate social profile. Users can create a profile nickname to separate their Hotpot account from their general Google profiles. Gmail and other Google profiles help users to track their friends, and find reviews and ratings by friends.
It goes without saying that Google has allowed Hotpot integration to Android phones. So Android phone users can rate and review on the go.
Google's Hotpot comes to news just weeks after Facebook launched its own location based function called Facebook Places, posing competition to the latter.