Menu Item search is here!

The Staten Island restaurant directory has just become much more powerful than ever.
Now you can search restaurants that serve your favorite food items.  In the mood for something unique such as ‘Rabbit’? Finding restaurants that offer the item on the menu is as simple as clicking ‘Menu Item Search’ in header navigation and typing in the food item, we will search all menus on Staten Island and display a list of all restaurants that have that specific food item.

Since we recently launched that item,  about 30 unique visitors daily are using that feature to find food items, unfortunately we are still busy typing out all menus, adding about 15 new menus to our searchable portion daily.  We plan to have all menus on Staten Island typed out and completed by the end of October.

What it means for you?
In addition to great fulfillment of finding you favorite meal, we are now capable of offering our service to visual readers for users who are visually impaired.  We left out the prices due to many factors, one being that it’s impossible to keep text menus up to date with as often as menus change, scanning menus are done on an operative basis, but manually having to edit price of each menu every time it changes can simply become a daunting task.   So for prices, please switch over to the Menu tab.

This always improves the way WhereYouEat attracts visitors through search engines, Google users can now search for menu items and add Staten Island, if we have that listed on one of our restaurant pages, you will find that listing through the search results.

Try the menu item search today:  Staten Island Restaurant Guide

Staten Island Restaurants Advertising has improved

As we continue to improve the way local business advertisers through targeted sponsored links, we have some new changes and additions that we have launched last week which has passed our quality assurance for visitors and sponsors.

What’s improved?
We have added a Restaurant Profile system which allows our sponsors to display an about us message or detailed information about their restaurant.  This helps the visitors connect to the restaurant by hearing what they have to say about themselves or seeing a special promotion.  This also helps the restaurant portray themselves to our hungry visitors and explain more about their establishment before the diner ever enter the place.

We have also added some social sharing features, at this point we are keeping this feature only for our sponsors and helps spread the listing in terms to their friends using Google+, Facebook and Twitter.  A Restaurant listing page can now go viral with one click and is spread across the visitors full network of friends, family and co-workers.  Some sponsors are already seeing over 50+ likes and Plus+1′s and twitter has yet to catch on.  When you like a restaurant, remember to click the like, helps spread the like to your friends.

Another great option that we have added for restaurants that sponsor their listing is a unique Search Engine keywords which deeply penetrates position of their restaurant for certain terms that the restaurant is unique for.  For example if a restaurant has “Happy Hour”, we would add that through their page so when visitor searches for Happy Hour on Staten Island, their listing would come up to the top or as close as possible for that term.

Our advertising has also improved by displaying more high targeted ads on Free Listing (non-self-sponsors) which now displays three targeted ads through text as well as the main banner header sponsor.   The system works miracles by targeting specific restaurants to display targeted ads which visitors clearly love.  Looking for a local pizzeria, now you can see a few nearby restaurants offering special deals and promotions, single click gets you to their restaurant page where you can see their specials, menus, photos and complete details.

Restaurants with Coupon search added

We have improved the way Restaurants that have savings, discounts and other coupons.  These restaurants are now searchable from the front city page using the link on the right that says “View restaurants with savings” and by using the Features Tab looking for ‘Coupons’.   We also have improved the way the “-> Coupon Inside”, is displayed on the listings results pages.  We will now highlight these with Yellow-Markings.  We have also added additional linking inside the restaurant page, restaurants that have discounts or printable coupons now have a link right under their phone-number that states to “View-Coupons”.   The ‘Print’ button is located at the bottom of the coupon and will print on a seperate sheet with no other markings except for the coupon.

We hope this makes finding where to eat and $ave on Staten Island a bit more easier.

Go directly to the list of Staten Island Restaurants with Coupons

Site Updates and Openings

A few important announcements:

• After 1 month of the new website (Version 3.0) being live it seems that everything is running smooth but of course we have been documenting browsing habbits and found a few small quality issues that we will begin improving before the end of this month.  These issues include:
  • Block multiple reviews from same visitor on each restaurant listing.
    • We have noticed that many reviews, especially the Negative one’s keep coming from same visitor for the same restaurant.  This security issue will be fixed in the first round of quality changes.
  • Improved Photo Gallery
    • Even though our photo gallery works great, unfortunately it only allows for a single size photo which does not display correctly if visitors share photos with different resolutions.  Will be fixed second round of QA changes.
  • Adding Menus to your Try Drawer and Menu Drawer will keep you on the same page, not forcing the current redirect which throws many of us off track.
  • Notices of Reviews Added, Menus Added to try Drawer will display a small notice instead of complete redirect.
  • Adding Photos will remain as smooth as it is now but allow easier access to your history.
  • Searching for Restaurants with coupons will be easier and found in all searches from main page, search page as well as restaurant page
    • Print Coupon Counter will be installed
  • New search features will include:  Wheelchair Accessible, Island Wide Delivery as well as recently added Sports Programming.
• We will also begin Complete on-going Menu Updates per 12-week basis.
  • This should leave enough time to allow us to have at least 95% update rate of menus at any given time.

New Openings coming this month and February:

• Gourmet Bagel Shop (South Shore)
• Aunt Birtchie’s (South Shore)
• Cabo (South Shore)
• Ruby Falls (South Shore)

Restaurant scene recovering

The number of visitors on WhereYouEat has went up a staggering 50% since last month.  During this tremendous growth we have experienced a lot of server issues and errors by having too many users on at a single time (For which our basic server can handle).  Since so many more people are searching for where to dine out, either through Search Engines or come Directly to the site this can tell us that the dining scene is in recovery phase.

Even though we understand that our traffic spurts and restaurants start to get busy again during this season and from our history we have been experiencing a 12% growth during the summer time, we have never expected a huge jump.  We are very happy to see this and will continue to work daily to better serve the community, environment and local business.

You can put your trust in WhereYouEat.com as the first place to check when a New Restaurant Opens, User Reviews, Critic Reviews and All Menus and Photos of Staten Island Restaurants!

Newsletter System is Functional

Dear Visitors, we must apologize for Bulk Sending of emails while we were testing our newsletter system.  It is now functional and works like it is supposed to.  There are many benefits of Registering for the Newsletter and you can find the Registration system on every city main page.  Registering is a simple process and lets you select your City and Zip Code so we are able to deliver news that fits around you, Local Restaurant news.

When you let us know which Zip Code you are located in, and a New restaurant opens up in your area we will deliver that straight to you, no need to fill up your email space with stuff that you are not interested in.  Although if you are planning on traveling outside of your area you can always check the scoop.

Share This Button has been added to Restaurant Pages

As per a request from many of you, we have recently added a Share This Button to restaurant pages.  It’s never been easier to share your Favorite Restaurant Menu and Photo pages through your favorite Social Networks.  Simply click the Button F, M, T to share with Facebook, Myspace or Twitter.  You can also open up the Share This to share with many of your other favorite Social Networking sites.  Give it a try now View the Restaurant Page and look under the Restaurant Address.

Connection 24 Hours

A feature upgrade of the way whereyoueat reports restaurant news has further improved during the Thanksgiving holidays. With advanced technology we are now live all the time and able to report openings, closings and other local restaurant news as soon as it happens.   Restaurant listings will now be added at the time of opening (no more 24/hour waiting period), news and walk-arounds will be added within hours of photos.

We hope you enjoy the improvements.

Happy Thanksgiving

A very Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.  And a very personal “Thank You” From Whereyoueat Media Company.  We truly appreciate the support that we received lately from you and the rest of the community, You are what makes this website possible.  We hope everyone enjoys there dinner and the coming holidays.

Upcoming Upgrades and Expansions coming to Whereyoueat in 2010

Our most recent upgrade was the Coupon Enhanced listing which we had developed 2 months ago is still getting the quirks worked out.  You can look for the Image above the Restaurant Photo to see if the restaurant may have a coupon.  Most of the Coupons are not required to be printed, Simply Mention Whereyoueat and receive any discount on the coupon.

OK, now for the few plans we have to make this website even further the (All-in-One) Food Source.

• Interviews with Local Restaurant Owners (January 2010):  Video interviews conducted at the restaurant location with some of the basic questions on why they started the business, where they learned how to cook and other general business questions.
• Message Forum: Connecting users in a live message forum way.
• Brooklyn Restaurant Listings will be all updated and we will begin updating menus on a (12-Week) period.  Brooklyn will also be complete with Photos by Mid-Year, and Walk-Around system will be in place the way it is on Staten Island.
• Late in the year we will begin a new phase: Developing a “beta” version of Online Ordering and Table Reservations.

To many request made to WhereYouEat about if we can deliver food from Restaurants that Do Not Deliver,  It’s possible that sometime in the future we will expand our market horizons by providing a delivery service.  At this time not too many request came in, so if this is something you are interested in, use the contact us as a suggestion.

Next Page »