iAte: Sorting Twitter for Dining Tips

If people repeatedly mention a restaurant or dish on Twitter, odds are it’s going to be because they like it, right? One or two mentions might be trashing it. But 20 to 30 will likely go the other way.

That’s the Grayboxx-like logic behind iAte, a new rundown of Twitter mentions (with a cool name). The site sorts dining mentions, and adds up the most buzz-worthy restaurants and dishes, city by city.

Portland, Oregon-based founder George DeCarlo III, a veteran of the domain registry business, describes himself as a “foodie.” He feels iAte is going to be a valuable supplement to the diner reviews that appear on a Yelp or Citysearch, which require more deliberateness on the part of the reviewer.

DeCarlo is the first to admit that the service isn’t beyond the beta stage yet. It “isn’t separating the good stuff from the not good stuff,” he says. “It’s got everything in it. Taco Bell, Burger King … it is all tangled together. It doesn’t separate the ice cream sandwich that is best.”

But DeCarlo says he is seeing signs of good traction, while helping restaurants climb up the Google rankings. The addition of pictures also helps. “It is absolutely true that a picture is worth 1,000 words,” especially in getting beyond Twitter’s 140-character limit, he says. The site is also helpful for checking out the most frequent places of friends and followers. Looking forward, he’s looking to integrate ratings into the tweets, and organize by eatery.