C an you feel it? The flutter of excitement. Call me a complete geek but nothing quite compares to a beta launch and the energy that surrounds it. So who is causing the latest buzz?
Lunch.com, based in Los Angeles, is a social review site where you can express your opinions and connect with users who share your passions. (See below for your invite-only code.)
Lunch launched in private beta at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco this week with the tagline “Feed Your Curiosity,” and quickly harnessed attention, with one review calling it a “Yelp 2.0.” In summary, Lunch appears to be a more complex rating site than we have seen in the past, with a focus on connecting people who share similar ideas and reviews. In addition, it offers some new and interesting features. Let’s check it out, shall we?
So what is it?
No, it’s not just another UGC (user-generated content) site. I was fortunate enough to play around in the interface and found Lunch to be a great balance between things we have grown to expect in an online social community as well as a few innovative ideas new to the space altogether. Members are able to rate and review anything, including books, recipes, gadgets and more, while also engaging with other members by rating the helpfulness of reviews.
Here is where it gets interesting.
Your ratings and opinions on other people’s reviews are constantly updating and negotiating a similarity network to other members. Without seeking out other users, you are matched with people who share similar opinions, thoughts, rants and raves. It’s like Facebook’s “suggest a friend” feature but based on your likes and dislikes, not on whether you graduated from the same school a decade ago.
I’m going to go on record and note this is a pretty impressive feature. Considering the current obsession with socially connecting online, I see Lunch as entering the race at the right time.
Let’s talk features
Beyond just ratings and reviews, Lunch also carries with it the required toolbelt for any strong online community. Examples include a Twitter-like update feed, community engaging games (called ExhilaRate), messaging, profiling, image uploading and so on. I was also happy to see they took into consideration rich media uploads when building out the review categories. In addition to the usual suspects, Lunch gets a gold star for being easy to navigate and having a refreshingly uncluttered (Gasp! Is that white space on my screen? It’s a beautiful thing) interface.
What are other people saying?
Considering it’s been out for a solid two days, there are already some skeptics and some big fans. For example, CNET asks the obvious question, “Is it joining the UGC race too late?,” while Mashable noted some review-filtering issues. However, Mashable gave a vote of confidence by calling Lunch.com “a StumbleUpon for ideas” — not a bad little title to snag — and one independent review wrote, “Lunch.com is social network that helps you share your knowledge and create a personal network of advisers with similar interests,” which we can all agree has a very buzz-worthy purpose right now.
Who’s behind it?
One thing Lunch absolutely has going for it is the leadership of a seasoned veteran in the social networking and online community space. Lunch’s CEO, J.R. Johnson (a friend), founded Lunch in the summer of 2008 after selling VirtualTourist.com, a user-generated travel review community of over 1 million members, to Expedia.com. Having such experience in the space surely shows in the launch of Lunch.com.
In a press release yesterday, in which he announced the beta launch, Johnson said: “Lunch is doing something different by creating a place to share and discover with people you wouldn’t otherwise have access to. Instead of connecting with people you already know, Lunch puts the focus on sharing what’s important to you and finding the most relevant information. … We foster a community of people who appreciate good conversation and respectful dialogue, and have a passion for understanding more in life.”
Like I said, I’m thinking this is something people will be excited to jump on board with.
So how do you give it a try?
Lunch.com just launched in private beta, but you can visit the site and enter our invite-only code “SocialMediaBiz.” To use it, just click the link on the right-hand side of the screen that says “Have an invite code?”
After you check it out, we would love to hear your thoughts. Like I said, nothing quite compares to sharing the fun of beta releases. (Insert dorky smile here).
So what do you think of the site?
Joanna Lord is a social marketing consultant and founder of YourJobStop, the job resources board. See her business profile, contact Joanna or leave a comment below.
Joanna, I met JR Johnson on Wed. at Web 2.0. Lunch 2.0 is one of the few new site launches I'm actually looking forward to checking out, thanks for laying the groundwork …
Interesting article and for its time the Lunch.com site looked viable. Looking at it in early 2013 however, I found the site wanting. Lunch.com is STILL in Beta. The original games that JR Johnson created with Lunch awards he dropped after the first year. The most disturbing thing of all is the jealous reviewers, that if you disagree with their holy right to write, they get upset and troll you. I had the experience of being partially blocked by the site because I insisted others join my communities. Rather than it being seen as encouragement to others to write for my communities, I was ostracized for it. I would get rumors from some members that I was negative in some way. When asked for actual names and facts, these were denied me.
Besides feeling I was back in high school with some of the trolls on the site, I noted other things wrong with it: When you try to cancel your account, it won’t let you. The hourglass runs and runs for hours when the attempt is made. The manager, “Devora”, does not respond to issues nor even updates her Message to the Community on the front page of the site, been there now for several months.
Technically, the site does not capture well other reviews from other sites such as Amazon, helping to create many duplicate topics for the same film or book. I have tried to create videos and download photos with mixed results in my reviews. Frustrating.
Lunch.com is withering on the vine. Its great potential ruined by JR Johnson not contributing to his own site, and leaving it in the hands of college kids who have no training in customer service or public relations. The site did once have great tech support and would immediately answer questions, now they seem to have abandoned it too.
The site has become a film, music and book site made for those who won’t allow founders to advertise their site, and look with distaste when you recommend your community over other communities. Competition is looked on as a bad word.
Great concept, but total fail at the end. Not recommended.