Thing 18: Web 2.0 Tools

I just went right to the award winners list. That was distracting enough. I could have spent hours looking at some of the tools here. Some I was very familiar with--like Facebook and Twitter and all the other things we have already looked at. Some were new and exciting. Of course I went right to the "Food" section!

My favorite in the Food section was called Urbanspoon. Although I love cooking, I also love to go out to eat and have someone else do all the work. What can I say? I like to be pampered. This site introduced me to all kinds of restaurants here in town. Some how Urbanspoon psychically knew that I was in Columbus. Big Brother knows my location! In addition to reviews of the restaurant, you will also find a link if the restaurant has a website. And my favorite part is the menu section. If the restaurant doesn't have a menu section, you might still luck out here. Sometimes a lovely diner will have taken a picture of the menu and posted it here. So for all those behind-the-times places that don't even have a presence on the web, it may be possible that some foodie had posted a menu pic. And back to those reviews.... These aren't just reviews from some Joe off the street. Although hearing what the average person thinks of a place is often helpful and insightful, it's not very authoritative. Urbanspoon will have your average Joe reviews AND reviews from the newspapers.

Now even though Big Brother told Urbanspoon that I was in Columbus, I still have the option of looking at other cities. This is a great way to find restaurants when you are going out of town. There are quick links for the top restaurants in the larger cities in the US and Canada. Fortunately Columbus was considered large enough. But let's say I was heading over to Ashtabula. With a few more clicks I can see many other cities all across the U.S.

What a fun site!