This morning I tripped across this new service called Waithound that let’s you share and look up wait times for any restaurant listed in Yelp. It was posted on the Chowhound community site, but I can’t seem to find the message any more so I’m not sure if it’s actually associated with them.
Waithound uses the Yelp API and allows you to update information on wait times for a restaurant based on how many people are in your party and whether it’s the estimated wait time or your actual wait time. The interface is fairly simple and allows you to set an area and search for restaurants around that location. If you’re in another area, you need to change your location before searching again to get relevant results, but it keeps the interface nice and simple.
This is a really handy tool for enabling diners to help each other through the mobile web. It would also be a very handy acquisition for the Yelp Mobile interface or for Opentable’s mobile web reservation system. The one thing that they might adjust is the number of results they will return on one page. Loading 50 restaurants via the mobile web, while it’s only text, seems a bit much. Other than that, this seems like a fantastic way to allow diners to share valuable real-time information.
Similar Stories:- Open Table Opens Doors to the Mobile Web
- Augmented reality contact lens could create bionic eyes
- 10 Location Based Services For iPhone or iPhone 3G
- FindWhere and Geoff Livingston’s Mobile Manifesto
- What I love about Papa Johns’ Mobile Web Interface
I'm Dave and I like to share news about gadgets, gear, careers and design for a mobile world.
theregoesdave