Today, various websites and search engines recommend restaurants to users on the basis of social recommendations. However, Nara has launched a different kind of app for both Android and iOS based devices that will recommend personalized restaurants by using its proprietary algorithms that learn users’ preferences over time.
This innovative new approach by Nara towards finding restaurants is a dawn of a new dimension of mobile search. Nara already had a web platform, but with the introduction of this new mobile app from this firm, Android and iOS device users can locate restaurants in about 22 cities of the U.S. and 3 cities in Canada that include the likes of Toronto, Vancouver, Las Vegas, New York, Austin, Portland and San Francisco. Users can start the algorithm of this mobile app by suggesting the names of their two favourite restaurants when prompted. The system will then ask new users three questions about themselves after taking a look at collection of images and selecting the one they deem to be the best.
Afterwards, users can also let the system recognize their preferences by using “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” signs. Once this system learns more about users based on their reactions to suggested material, it will recommend them eating places in other cities as well, a unique feature of this app that distinguishes it from the pack.
Explaining the idea behind Nara’s new mobile app, founder and CEO of this company, Tom Copeman said that, “I envisioned a platform that actually works for me on my own behalf out on the web that really got to know me and understand me and know what my likes and dislikes and preferences were. It’s really about turning searching into finding. We strongly believe that the way that the web has evolved over the last 3-5 years, search has become less and less relevant to us, yet it’s taking up so much more of our time.”
Apart from suggesting personalised restaurants Nara’s latest mobile app also enables users to filter and search from the database of this service, so they can locate restaurants on the basis of neighbourhood and cuisines. In addition, users can also make reservations in the restaurants through this app, as it is integrated with OpenTable. The company is also planning to launch a similar app for Windows Phone and other devices in the near future. They may also leverage their model to come up with a search apps for other products like hotels, music, books because the recommendation engine is based on Digital DNA that can hunt all sorts of products.
Source: Tech Crunch, BetaKit