April 27 , 2010

Yellowpages.ca puts users in the mood for food

Offers mood-based approach to search

The wisdom of the crowd is now available in the palm of your hand with the new Urbanizer iPhone application. Powered by YellowPages.ca, Urbanizer helps consumers discover restaurants in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Ottawa based solely on their mood and social networks.

With Urbanizer, urbanites can now discover local places by telling the app what they are in the mood for.  For example, users can choose from a selection of pre-defined moods such as “romantic dinner” and “hipster snack” or use Urbanizer’s equalizer function to create a custom mood based on combinations of cuisine, ambiance and service categories.

“Urbanizer uses the power of the YellowPages.ca network to help consumers make better decisions. It leverages your social networks and own experiences to help you make dining decisions based on your current mood”, said Stéphane Marceau, Chief Marketing Officer at Yellow Pages Group. “We’ve created a mobile app that is both social and interactive to meet the needs of young, urban individuals looking for the perfect local spot to fit their lifestyle”.

When linked with Facebook Connect, Urbanizer users can also share their experiences with friends, tag establishments they’ve visited and assign them a mood, or identify locations as ‘favourites’. Once added to ‘favourites’, locations across Canada will appear, colour-coded according to mood, on the Urbanizer map for the entire Urbanizer community to consult.

The app is now available for download in the iTunes App Store as a beta version in English and French. Future versions will see cities added based on user votes as well as categories expanded to include nightlife, shopping, activities and events.

The Urbanizer experience was designed by Yellow Pages Group (YPG) in partnership with a team of experts. They developed a proprietary system that analyzes restaurant user reviews and editorial content to dynamically assign a “mood” to locations. Urbanizer is equivalent to reading thousands of reviews in a matter of seconds.