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Zagat, Foursquare let diners chronicle meals via app

Restaurant guide publisher Zagat Survey LLC has partnered with mobile social network Foursquare to let diners check-in to restaurants, get meal tips and upload photos of their favorite dishes.

The Zagat To Go 4.0 iPhone application was developed by Handmark. The application has three major features including Foodspotting and a Zagat Dining Journal.

?Zagat To Go 4.0 is designed to help people make smart dining decisions,? said Ryan Charles, mobile product manager at Zagat, New York.

?By integrating Foursquare check-ins and tips into the app and a new dining journal, we hope to help users track where they have eaten and easily add their ratings and reviews,? he said. ?We made these additions to further enhance the overall user experience for our mobile users.

?All of our mobile applications and products are targeted at savvy mobile users who are also interested in accessing restaurant information on the go.?

Zagat Survey is a source for information about where to eat, drink, stay and play. Zagat has over 375,000 surveyors who rate and review thousands of restaurants worldwide. 

Handmark develops and distributes mobile applications. The company specializes in mobile services for publishers and media companies.

Restaurant check-in
The application?s Foursquare feature provides meal tips to diners to help them choose what to order.

In addition, users can check-in to any Zagat-rated restauarant.

?By incorporating Foursquare check-ins and meal tips, our goal is to help mobile users create a more personalized and rounded experience on our application,? Mr. Charles said. ?Zagat was recently named the No. 1 brand on Foursquare, highlighting the complementary nature of Foursquare to Zagat users.?

Here is a screen grab of the application:

Dining journal
There is also a Foodspotting feature that includes thousands of photos of dishes, which diners can view.

With the Zagat Dining Journal, users can keep a virtual diary of the restaurants they visited throughout the year.

Diners can add restaurants to their journal by tapping ?Been Here? on the restaurant?s details page.

When a Foursquare user checks-in to a Zagat-rated restaurant ? whether on Foursquare or via the application ? the restaurant will be added to a diner?s journal.

Additionally, users can add ratings and reviews to the Dining Journal.

Zagat To Go 4.0 is also available on Apple?s iPad ? the company launched the application in April.

The application is available in Apple?s App Store for $9.99.

Here is another screen grab of the application:

?We are letting Zagat.com users and our mobile customers know about these additions to the app,? Mr. Charles said. ?The application is available for purchase exclusively through the Apple App Store or, for those who currently have the app, as an update.

?We?re eager to evaluate the success of the Foursquare and our Dining Journal,? he said. ?We?ll then make informed decisions on how to proceed on our other platforms.?

Final Take
Rimma Kats, editorial assistant at Mobile Marketer, New York