7/3/08

FoodGawker vs. Tastespotting

Screen grab from FoodGawker.com

When Tastespotting closed its doors, food bloggers everywhere gasped a singular question: "Where will we get our food porn?" Many also wondered how they could attract new readers. The Internet being what it is, however, several Tastespotting clones sprang up to take its place.

Now the big guns hve gotten into the mix. SeriousEats has introduced Photograzing. Given SeriousEats' traffic, Photograzing will no doubt generate a lot of interest as users scroll through page after page of immaculately photographed food. Just pay no attention to the obtrusive ad stuck right in the middle of the page. Pay no attention that it's from Wal-Mart. Just move on about your day and everything will be fine (as long as you buy steaks from Wal-Mart).

I think it's a colossal fuck up mistake. But if they're willing to give that one piece of real estate back to users, they've got a good product on their hands.

That said, I think there's no better replacement than FoodGawker (and it's not just because they've seen fit to post my photos). FoodGawker seems to have a better food mix (TS seems dominated by baked goods, which are the subject of a forthcoming rant as soon as I can corral my blinding rage into some kind of coherent, pithy post), and their new look is plain elegance. So, while I think it's great that Tastespotting is back, I think FoodGawker is where I'm going to be spending most of my time.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

This is just great. Last week I was looking for the tastespotting site and saw that it was down. Thanks for posting about this great alternative. Yummmm!

Anonymous said...

Agreed re: the ad on Serious Eats. WHY?! Foodgawker seems like a really nice place and I think I'll be spending alot of time there.

Niamh

Myamii said...

What about Rezimo (http://www.rezimo.com) ?? Dose it not come into the picture??

While I do love TasteSpotting and FoodGawker, I find they have changed their themes to be too dark and it distracts from the photos. As to Photograzing and their WalMart ads...well that's just another story...