On the same day that Facebook announced its IPO, the FoodSpotting app dished up a few new offerings. Now it creates a personalized picture menu for you, the FoodSpotting user, delivering “smart dish recommendations” based on what you like. The “filter wheel” categorizes food into dishes that you want to try and have already tried, and those you hope to never eat again; you can also see how your friends feel about various dishes. FoodSpotting connects to your Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Foursquare and Instagram accounts so you can immediately share any food photo you’ve taken. You can also cruise through nearby locations.
If you’ve read this far, you’ve probably already downloaded the app for your iPhone, Android, BlackBerry or Windows phone, and are contemplating not reading the rest of this because you’re too busy salivating over your next meal. Get ready for the complete food-pornification of Facebook, curated by you.
I’ll be the first to admit that I downloaded the FoodSpotting app before I even finished reading the announcement. I am starving and it’s almost lunchtime. I use the “Explore” tab and scroll through photos of food, landing on this one particularly unappetizing-looking roast beef sandwich from City Provisions, an upscale organic market. I’d jump on the train and rush down to eat that sandwich immediately if the photo didn’t make it look so unappetizing. Instead, I think I’ll stay home and make myself a sandwich.
FoodSpotting is calling itself a “Pandora-like interface for discovering and rating dishes around you.” Except the difference here is that Pandora would never spam your Facebook Timeline like FoodSpotting has the ability to do.
Eating is Social. Period.
Despite all our whining about food porn on the Web, there’s something charming about FoodSpotting. As a user, I do want to know what my smart, interesting FoodSpotting friends are eating, why they’re eating that, and if I should eat it, too. Eating is one of those inherently social activities. And the FoodSpotting app isn’t creepy like many of the other 60-or-so Facebook social apps. The social aspect of food might overshadow the negative impact food porn photos could have on the social Web, and specifically Facebook. But do you really want your Facebook kingdom to look like this?
Photos courtesy of AmateurFoodPorn and Shutterstock.
