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Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Another Ratings Site

We have Ratebeer and the Beer Advocate--sufficient for our needs, yes? BrewSocial thinks not. It's the newest entry into the beer social-networking segment, and the idea is that you go there and rate a bunch of beers and then the site's algorithm-cruncher spits out some recommendations for you. It is very similar to Netflix in design and function. I went in and rated about seventy beers and then went to the recommendations page. At that moment, I saw the flaw in the site.

The recommended beers have little or no information. The number one recommendation for me was Northstar Brewing's Fire it Up. What is it? Where is it brewed? Who knows. There is this description, which doesn't fill one with confidence: "a good drink mixed with beer, margarita, wiskey, and tequlia."

Netflix works because the information about the movies is rich and complete and because you can order movies right there. This site has neither virtue. I'm not totally sure what the purpose is, but there seems to be a lot of traffic. (There are of course friends and profiles and so on, but still ....) Perhaps you will go figure it out and explain to me how I missed the point.

2 comments:

  1. It's kind of comical site. I thought it was a joke.

    The Budweiser, Rolling Rock, San Miguel, Kronenberg and Grolsch Tasting links on the home page made me think, this can't be serious or even a serious rating site.

    Then, I read the beer reviews! I saw descriptions like "Tasty," "Very good" and my favorite, a review for Bud Select...."Expensive piss!" This says volumes about the Site quality and knowledge level of the beer drinkers who are reviewing.

    I've seen more imaginative adjectives used on roadside pan handles sign! BTW, if they use the word "Beer" on their sign, I give them a buck. If they use the word "God" or "Bless," I know they're full of shit and they get nothing...

    Best sign I ever saw said, "I bet you can't hit me with a quarter!"

    Oh, this has inspired me to write a n article for my web site...

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  2. If it was "I bet you can't hit me with a beer bottle," I'd be more inclined to try.

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