eJ does eJournalism

I love restaurants more than most things. They are heavenly places where it is acceptable, and expected, that I don’t/won’t cook. People serve me delicious food that would be impossible for me to create, while simultaneously bringing me thirst-quenching beverages.

I also love being able to find restaurants online. It’s unbelievable how a website can impact someone’s decision to buy a product that has absolutely no relevance in a virtual world.

Enough about me.

TechCrunch.com announced a new platform today called GrabMyTable that helps small restaurants have an online presence. For $60 a month, restaurants can easily market themselves online.

As people frequently search for their new favorite places to eat on their iPhones and on Google, it is incredibly important for any restaurant to have, at the very least, basic online marketing. The more reviews to be found online, from legitimate sources, the better.

GrabMyTable is a fairly simple concept – it allows restaurants to post pictures, menus, and reviews.

But not blogs! Restaurants should blog! Can you imagine – a chef blogs about the fresh fish they’ve brought in, and you comment, “Next week, can you try to get salmon?” Ah, just think of the communication possibilities if restaurants decided to have corporate blogs.

I’m not a huge fan of this new site. I don’t understand what it offers over other existing web technologies. Even the most technology-adverse company can buy its own domain and host a simple website for $25 per year.

Its goal is to create a database of its clients to present to customers. Unless if more people jump on board and use the technology in Vancouver, it’s doubtful that customers will use this as an information source, as it doesn’t have many advantages over competitors like Yelp and Citysearch that provide reviews and commentary.

I think it is great that someone wants to make it easier for restaurants to market themselves online. What I don’t understand is why technology doesn’t seem to solve consumers’ problems better than what’s already available.

It’s a 1.0 start up in a 2.0 world.