Nosh from Google a P2P Foursquare Meets Zagats

Originally posted on Communications and Technology Blog - Tehrani.com, here: http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/rich-tehrani/google/nosh-from-google-a-p2p-foursquare-meets-zagats.html.

I just met with Craig Walker the Founder & CEO of Firespotter Labs and he went over where his Google-backed companies will be innovating in the future. As you may recall, Walker founded Dialpad and Grandcentral which eventually got acquired by and became the foundation of Google Voice. Walker explained his new company will be looking to disrupt markets where there is an opportunity to disrupt.

We can for example expect more disruption in telephony and the hospitality market was referenced by him as a space worth $600 billion/year and yet there has been little innovation beyond the buzzing pagers they give you when there is a line to get a seat.

His company's new app, Nosh available on iOS and Android aims to merge the best of Foursquare and Zagat with the p2p elements of having reviews done by users who could be your friends. You can rate food at the restaurant where you eat and you can share the rating with others - the scale is 1 to 5 stars. He did a demo of the app for me which you can see in the video below.

Eventually when enough data is collected they will allow search functionality showing you what others think of the grilled octopus or seafood bisque at your favorite restaurant.

To me this is a great idea because so much of this information is already being shared on Facebook and Twitter but it is uncategorized meaning if someone finds a roach in local diner and tweets about it - how on earth will a potential customer know about it?

At some point in the future, this app can add other categories allowing it to rate doctors, retail stores or anything else.

If it catches on it will force restaurants and other establishments to have even better levels of quality as potential customers will be able to instantly find negative reviews and consider them before purchasing.

Tags: craig walker, dialpad, firespotter labs, foursquare, google, google ventures, grandcentral, ip communications, nosh, tmcnet, voip, zagats Related tags: google, walker