If you’re hungry for something different, snap open your iPhone, download the new application called Foodspotting, and voila, a platter of new food ideas appears.
Call it Facebook for foodies — Foodspotting lets anyone stuck in the slow-lane of fast food find new dishes, not just restaurants.
OSU grad Alexa Andrzejewski and her site developer Ted Grubb launched foodspotting.com in January. Since then, the app has been downloaded more than 100,000 times. It’s available on the web, and free for the iPhone.
Andrzejewski graduated from OSU in 2005 with a degree in design and now lives in San Francisco.
“We started Foodspotting to create a better way for people to learn about new foods and to find them using their mobile phone,” she said in an e-mail.
Foodspotting is a “foodie-powered field guide,” according to the website. A look at the site reveals photos of recent food recommendations complete with addresses, a rating scale of best and most-wanted and a world map of foods to add to one’s bucket list and much more.
Membership allows the food spotter to nominate a dish, post pictures and be nominated themselves for foodspotter of the week — or all-time.
Foodspotters can also create guides, or lists of recommendations, based on criteria they choose.
Go online, or use your iPhone and find Foodspotting.com. Sign up, take pictures of foods you discover, post them to the Foodspotting site, and you become one of 20,000 foodspotters posting pictures.
Here’s an example. For the latest local posting from the new student Union, go to Woody’s Tavern to see a recommendation for beef and bean nachos.
Ted Grubb built the website in about three months.
“The iPhone app still needs work, like the capacity for more interaction with users,” he said.
The website is ready, and Twitter users can tweet favorite foods, as well.
There’s venture capital headed their way, too.
“It’s definitely coming,” Grubb said. “We plan to monetize [the site] by offering ad spots to individual restaurants since the service is so local and immediate.”
Under “People,” screen name nellaboah has posted thai curry as a recent food. The posting includes a picture of “Thai Curry @ Sake Cafe,” a Google map of how to find Sake Cafe, phone numbers, addresses, a comment box and various links for more information.
“The best part of Foodspotting is that it is international,” said Randy Fung, a foodspotter from Palo Alto, Calif. “As someone who’s always loved to travel and dine well, it’s been a great resource.”
For those wondering, the website founder’s favorite dish is, “Maple Glazed Bacon Apple Donut was pretty amazing,” Alexa wrote. “I tried it because of a sighting.”
To get started, check out foodspotting.presslift.com/iphonelaunch
