Urbanspoon, Yelp Serve Up New Mobile Tools

Just in time for holiday search, shop and feast, both restaurant recommendation site Urbanspoon and local reviews hub Yelp are ramping up their mobile efforts.

Urbanspoon’s updated iPhone application adds a new layer of recommendation capability by allowing users to not only rate and review restaurant locations, but also actual menu items. Reviewers can snap, upload and share photos of their preferred dishes, with accompanying recommendations, directly to the site … as well as browse for menu items at nearby eateries.

Urbanspoon Rez, the online reservation services that competes directly with OpenTable, will be integrated into the new app in select markets (L.A., New York, Seattle).

Urbanspoon: Rating Menu Items

Meanwhile, Yelp is taking its popular local reviews platform to iPad. The app allows for all the expected user engagements (writing and socially sharing reviews, bookmarking businesses). The new “dish”: photo search results (with connected ratings and reviews) that take advantage of the screen size and resolution of the iPad screen. The double column format posts search results along the left edge, with the right dedicated to visual aesthetics such as maps and photos.

Yelp: Photo Search Results