Burrp! is an online service for reviewing restaurants, bars, cafes etc… from your local neighborhood. The idea was given birth when five of the founding members travelled to Mumbai, India and had a tough time fniding good places to hangout.
The service was luanched in alpha(‘Ka’ as they called it!) late July. I have had a chance to review the service at that moment, but didnt have much to review earlier. Now the service has gone live for Mumbai here. Its a neat way allowing users to add their favorite place under burrp and write a nice review about the ups of the place. Users can also upload photos of the place they are reviewing and burrp! does a nice job in showing up the images.
User interface is neat and non-cluttered. The pages transition nicely giving the service a faster feel to it. By the time I was in for a review, I see lots of people signing on for writing their own reviews of their favorite places in Mumbai. One thing I could not figure out was the ‘Add a Establishment’. I tried adding an establishment to the system, but once I was done adding the establishment details, it prompted me to upload a picture of the place. I didnt have one, so I was looking for a cancel option. I was not able to find one, and then didnt have a clue to go back to my establishment. Maybe this is not a public feature, as it would cause a flood of establishments being added, or the establishment is kept in buffer for moderation before it shown up under the system. I am sure I am missing something there. If anyone from the team is reading this, please leave a comment.
Overall, I see the service providing a nice way to find better places to spend your evenings at. Expanding this to other cities in India and eventually other countries is I am sure, certainly on the plates of the team @ burrp!
I am not sure how the service will be monetized, but I guess once it gains a momentum, establishments can pay a little fees to be listed and reviewed by a in-house burrp(er). Another way I can think of is integrating some discount coupons in the search mechanism. The way I would see it work is if you arrive at a particular establishment via their tag search mechanism, the user would be given a X% discount coupon to be used at the establishment. I am sure the establishments wont mind giving the small discount, especially when they have customers coming in from a search result.
All in all, I am certainly checking them out in near future, and absolutely before I travel to Mumbai! As the team at burrp! says, Onwards and Upwards!
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[...] Ravneet Grewal of Emergintex has written us up here. We are very happy with his review and are working hard on some of the rightly identified issues he has brought up. Connecting with the blogging community is something we’re big believers in, so a big thank you to Ravneet and Emergintex for giving burrp! some TLC. [...]
Ravneet,
Your review is spot on. Some of the issues you’ve pointed out are ones we’re working our tails off on. Many thanks for your continued curiousity and interest in burrp! Keep an eye out for subsequent releases which we’ll be rolling out a breakneck speeds. I’ll definitely let you and your readers know ahead of time what to expect.
I think this is less technology and more idea…the ENGAGING web has given a new world to the people to bring their ideas live…but i still cant find any hi-fi techie kind of thing here…why we indians can not produce Y! Google or Microsoft, why we keep producing Burrps etc…
Jitendra,
Thats a very valid question. At the same time, not everything Y! Google or Microsoft are doing, is ground breaking technology enhancement. At the moment, to create a service that caters to a community is one of the main aims of even the companies you listed. User oriented services are are as important as a ground breaking technology.
Also, I do agree why arent there Indian startups which aim at making a technology from ground up, instead of relying on current models. Look out for a coming soon post on one such Indian startup.
Hmmm i agree..