Zagat Guides sold again

[John F]

Tim and Nina Zagat cashed in back in 2011 when they sold their business to Google. Since then, the Zagat system has gone steadily downhill, as Google didn't really know what to do with it and repeatedly cut its staff. Now they have sold it on to an online restaurant guide called "The Infatuation," which says it will preserve Zagat and its reviews as a separate "brand."

https://www.theinfatuation.com/features ... agat-brand

What made Zagat's guides useful to me was their breadth of coverage - just about anywhere anybody wanted to review could be included, regardless of price, location, even quality. The Infatuation has a staff of professional restaurant reviewers and so their coverage has to be much narrower, and the reviews are one reviewer's opinion rather than a consensus of the likes of us.

Well, we'll see.

[lennygoran]

Since then, the Zagat system has gone steadily downhill, as Google didn't really know what to do with it and repeatedly cut its staff. Now they have sold it on to an online restaurant guide called "The Infatuation," which says it will preserve Zagat and its reviews as a separate "brand."Well, we'll see.

Thanks for the alert-- I carried around the NYC Zagat whenever we were in NYC-may give it another try but it sure did go downhill. Regards, Len

[jbuck919]

Their main collective restaurant "reviews" with their inevitable mention of someone saying "not cheap" every single time when it was not, remained intact. (They must have heard from a lot of country bumpkins who went to a starred restaurant in NYC and ended up with a bill over $200 for two and hollered that they had not been warned.)

The problem was that their searchability in many useful ways had gone to pot. Just try to find as good a version of "best restaurants for dining alone" and many other categories with the depth of the results you used to get, assuming the category exists anymore at all. Of course, they have a lot of competition these days, but much of it is even worse. I mean Trip Advisor? Give me a break.

[lennygoran]

I mean Trip Advisor? Give me a break.

I like Yelp-lots of photos broken down by things like inside, outside, food, etc. Regards, Len