100th post!
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This is our 100th post to the blog! Any milestone, especially the 100th, is always a huge thing to celebrate and at CitySpoon we’re big on celebrating! So this blog post, while possibly missing any form of actual context or real information, is meant to just celebrate all of the accomplishments we’ve made! CitySpoon.com is alive and well! SpoonerSpot.com, the newest thing to hit the social networking world, is alive and almost ready to come out of beta! We’ve added so many new users we can barely believe it, and every day we’re polishing up the site to make it even better for you to truly “Put your life on the map”!
Be sure to stay tuned to SpoonerSpot for all of your social networking needs. If you’ve got an upcoming event, are hosting a party at a very special location, want to advertise a new business location or even just document some of your favorite memories from around the world, just hop onto SpoonerSpot and create Spots all over the map! And get even more excited about Spotting because some big things were decided this week that will make the SpoonerSpot experience even better! We’ll be rolling out changes in the next few weeks as we finally exit our beta and officially enter the online social networking world. Tell your friends! We can’t wait to see what places you’re going to Spot!
CitySpoon’s Team hits the streets!
0The team’s been out exploring the world thanks to the great Spots posted on the map all of the time on SpoonerSpot! We found a great Spot for a place called the Black Bear Diner, which you can see here. It’s in Las Vegas, down the street from our offices, and the food was pretty awesome! Here’s what Alicia from our marketing department thought of the Black Bear Diner:
Black Bear Diner is located in Las Vegas, Nevada off of Tropicana between Jones and Torrey Pines. The restaurant looks very small and petite from the outside but once you enter it is a completely different world. Black Bear Diner is full of lots of tables and seats to accommodate the most amount of customers at a time comfortably. The waiters and waitresses are dressed in a lumberjack outfit to fit the mood and theme of the restaurant.
When you get the menu it is designed like a newspaper and very large and intimidating. There are many things to pick on the menu and it all sounds delicious. I highly recommend the breakfast even though their meatloaf is rated “one of the best of all time” and they are known to have perfectly cooked burgers.
I ordered the breakfast along with my company. The portions were huge! One of my guests ordered the “Bigfoot chicken-fried steak” which includes: their famous homestyle chicken-fried steak covered in homemade gravy with 3 eggs, a huge stack of potatoes of your choice and 2 homemade biscuits with gravy. The other ordered “The Grizz.” which includes: 2 pancakes, 3 eggs, 2 pieces of bacon, 2 sausage links, and a ham steak with hash browns. If you order off of their “Hungry Bear’s Breakfast” then you better be hungry! I ordered the “Homemade Corned Beef Hash and Eggs” which includes: their own fresh corned beef hash served Black Bear’s special way, with hash browns and a fresh biscuit with gravy.
I was amazed with how much food they fit on the plate but everything was incredibly good. I asked for the “Baby bear hot sauce” which is a medium spice but very tasteful to put ontop of my meal. The portions were huge, the service was great, and the food was absolutely delicious! I highly recommend going there for an early Saturday morning breakfast before running errands.
A bigger push for a better social network
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We’re making some excellent strides in developing a new kind of social network for you! SpoonerSpot is the wave of the future and we’re all so proud of the accomplishments that have been achieved this year. Already you can create Spots by just right-clicking anywhere on the map, leave comments for other members and truly learn about the world through the eyes of the Spooners you follow. This is social networking, this is putting your life on the map and this is something completely new to the world of the Internet!
Of course, everyone’s still growing in this industry, and we’re the same way. Hey, even Facebook puts out a new redesign every few (hours) weeks. So yes, SpoonerSpot has a lot of great things going for it, but we’re never going to be done because we always want to keep making SpoonerSpot even better for you! And considering we’re still in beta (though we’re getting closer and closer to the end of beta every day), we’re definitely adding improvements every day. Right now we’re tossing around a lot of ideas, including an easier to use Spotting system (we’re talking simple…you’ll love it!), a few new privacy controls so you can really Spot whatever you want without worrying about a few questionable people seeing it, and an even easier way to find new users and friends to follow.
Be sure to stay tuned to SpoonerSpot for all the great new things coming, and be sure to let your friends know to follow you on SpoonerSpot too. After all, what’s social networking without a few friends to network with, socially.
Have fun! We’ll see you on the map!
Spreading the word
0Spreading the word about any new product is one of the most important steps in the marketing process. Everyone wants their product to be successful, and a great way to do that is to have a lot of people using your product. Social networking sites are no exception. We want SpoonerSpot to be as successful as we know it can be, and now that we’re in a pretty stable beta phase we want to spread the word! So this week our marketing team is hitting the town, making sure everyone in Las Vegas knows how fun SpoonerSpot really is! Everything from emails to phone calls to meeting with the movers and shakers of this great town is in the works, and the word is being spread.
But why exactly are we so big on spreading the word? Well, a few reasons. First off, we want more people to use SpoonerSpot. We’ve seen a huge influx of members since we added the redesign (based on your feedback Spooners!), but the social networking landscape is huge and we want even more people Spotting! Second, we want to partner with a few businesses in town to get the party really going! This is probably the biggest one for us. SpoonerSpot is all about showing off our favorite places around the world, and somewhere in there we need to bridge the gap between the virtual world (aka SpoonerSpot) and the real one. That’s where some great Las Vegas businesses come into play. We’re on the lookout for some clever marketers out there who want to partner with the SpoonerSpot team to truly put their business on the map! We’re talking about parties, concerts, games and big promotions all around town! SpoonerSpot lets users talk about their world and share important places with EVERYONE, and we want to help a few more businesses do that. So as part of our efforts this week we’re also working out a few things with some of your favorite stores, shops and hangouts, to make sure that Spooning isn’t just fun for you while you’re on your computer, but also helps you enjoy the world as you live it too!
Stay tuned to this blog and our social networking channels to see where we’re going to be next, and what our next big promotion will be. If you’re a Las Vegas business looking to increase your reach and want to get in early with one of the biggest social networking platforms to hit the web, be sure to contact us at info@cityspoon.com!
Things keep getting better
0We’ve been making a lot of improvements to SpoonerSpot, and we hope it shows. You can already see a new design to the front end of spoonerSpot, offering an easy to use method for seeing all of the Spots of the Spooners you follow. We’ve also rolled out some changes that should make navigation even easier, and more importantly, faster. It’s all about improvements at CitySpoon, and we can’t wait until we take SpoonerSpot out of beta and release it to the world. We couldn’t have made so many changes with so much success if it wasn’t for you! Thank you Spooners, and keep on staying tuned to SpoonerSpot! We’ve got much more in store for you!
Big changes were rolled out this week
0The SpoonerSpot beta is moving right along, and we rolled out the first of several rounds of changes this week. If you haven’t yet, log on to SpoonerSpot and take a look around! First off, we’ve added a new, more engaging layout. The map is HUGE, and we’re very proud that you can now see all of the Spots of the Spooners you follow in such a big, engaging way. Second, we’ve added the handy slider bar on the left. This section features a few different things; you have your Following Tab, so you can see the latest Spots from the Spooners you follow, a Most Recent tab, so you can see the most recent Spots throughout all of SpoonerSpot, a View tab, so you can check off which Spooners you want to see on the map (and change their color….click on a Spot to check it out!), and a Nearby tab, so you can see which Spooners have Spots nearby the center of your map! Wow, that was a long sentence!
We’ve also added some big things to your avatar. You can add your picture to your profile, and put that picture into your Spots throughout the map. Now everyone that follows you can see your beautiful face all over the world, signifying that you have a Spot that they need to see! On that note, you can also add pictures to your Spots! Don’t just tell us about a place; show us! Make your Spots come to life with these two exciting visual aids!
Finally we’ve added the all important Spot page! By clicking on a Spot’s title or its picture you will be taken to the Spot page, where you can talk about the Spot, learn a little more about the Spot’s location and even attach your own Spots to share some of your favorite places even easier!
So that’s it. Big changes, and we’re not done yet. Tell your friends! We’re very excited, and can’t wait to see you on SpoonerSpot!
It’s been a good week
0We’re all set to roll out some new changes. The whole week has been spent polishing up SpoonerSpot based on the recommendations from you, the loyal Spooner. We launched the most recent beta version of SpoonerSpot in March, and since then we’ve received a ton of great responses. Some of you had difficulty navigating the site, some of you didn’t like a few of the layout things, but all of you seemed to like the idea of Spotting, and that was our primary goal! Since then we’ve taken your advice, redone some layout ideas and really enhanced the site.
So what are you going to see when we roll these changes out? Well, first off, it won’t be done. We have a lot of great ideas coming out of the office and until we get all of those ideas into the site we aren’t leaving Beta! On that note, you will see a new, bigger, even more interactive map! You’re also going to see all of the information you want to see, like the Spooners you follow and their Spots, in a very convenient place! We’re also going to be rolling out some fun things with your avatar, designed to really draw you into the SpoonerSpot experience! We also have some new challenges awaiting you, and the long awaited ability to add pictures to your Spots! Now every Spot can contain a beautiful (or not so beautiful…your call) shot of whatever the heck you’re planning of Spotting. Even better, if someone wants to comment on that Spot the functionality for that is even easier, allowing all of the Spooners throughout the world to talk with each other about any Spot in the world! It’s social networking at its best!
We’ll be rolling out the first round of many changes sometime next week, so get ready! We’re very excited and hope you like what we have coming! And with that in mind, here’s a quick tease to get you through the weekend! Below, a quick shot of the new layout for SpoonerSpot.com!
The Spot and the Importance of Details
0When you’re working on a new project, you’re really venturing into unknown waters. Where are we going? What are we doing? Even when you think you have a clear answer to all of those things, when someone looks at the big picture it becomes obvious pretty quick that you really have no clue what’s going on. But that’s the joy of the startup, especially one like SpoonerSpot. You’re just a handful of people with one really cool idea, and you can pretty clearly see the end picture, but everything in the middle is pretty fuzzy. Still, you focus on that end goal and keep reminding everyone how cool your project is (seriously, SpoonerSpot is awesome!) and you work through the murky middle waters until you get to the goal. And the fun part? Some of those murky middle waters actually have some interesting stories.
That’s what happened this week. The details got us into a pretty lengthy discussion, and it was on things we had no clue we’d ever need to really sit down and discuss until we got here. This week’s big conversation: What the heck should the new Spot actually look like?
We’ve always known the basic design of the Spot, and you can even see it on SpoonerSpot right now. But we ran into a few design issues, fixed them, added some new features, then lunch, then got back into adding features and that’s where the idea/problem/complexity came about: now that we want to add so many cool things, what, exactly, should the Spot look like? I mean really look like. Does it slope in the middle? Does it curve back at the bottom? Should it have big giant rabbit ears? Should it talk? Alright, maybe a few of these are ridiculous, but they are all serious concerns. And that let to some serious talks! If we use Design A, then Section B won’t work anymore. If we use Design B, Sections A and C will only work if the following things happen. Yes, this all was serious talk, and no, we didn’t actually say “Section B” and “Design A”. We’ve gotta use a little code in this blog, right?
At the end of the meeting, though, we came up with what we think is the strongest, coolest idea, and it was actually right under our nose the whole time! So without further stalling (and hopefully no more multi-day long meetings), here is the new Spot, ready to go and waiting for you on the new and improved SpoonerSpot.com!
CitySpoon’s team explores the local Spots – Sonio’s Cafe
0We’re still on the lookout for some of the coolest Spots on the map, and a new one popped up just the other day! This one’s for a restaurant in Vegas that has a pretty awesome following: Sonio’s Cafe! If you’re ever in Vegas and you haven’t been here, it’s definitely worth checking out. The CitySpoon team has always been fans of this local’s hot spot, but since it was Spotted on the map we thought it would be fun to check it out and let you, the loyal Spooner, know how it went. Here’s what what team member had to say…
From Alicia:
Sonio’s is a “hole in the wall” restaurant feel with “expensive” taste and I don’t mean price. Sonio’s menu provides different types of food like salad, hot dogs, chicken, some Mexican food, and my favorite; Italian beef sandwiches.
The first thing I saw on the menu was the Italian beef sandwich and knew instantly that I wanted one. The option of getting the sandwich “wet” or “dunked” is up to you but I definitely went with the wet sandwich. The Italian beef sandwich that I ordered came with Italian beef, sweet peppers, hot peppers and mozzarella (for my own personal liking) and soaked in their homemade giardennerra sauce. Obviously this had to be eaten with a fork and knife because picking it up and eating it like a normal sandwich was not realistic with the amount of meat and peppers that came on it and with how moist the roll gets when it is soaked with the giardennerra sauce.
My first impression of the sandwich when it was presented to me was “how am I going to eat this” and “oh my gosh this looks mouth-watering I have to take a picture.” The first bite was sopping wet and full of a large amount of flavor. The way that the hot peppers mix with the sweet peppers is delicious. Not one flavor stands out by itself but all flavors stand out together.
Overall my experience at Sonio’s was lasting. I will see you again Sonio’s when my craving for a delicious Italian Beef sandwich needs to be met.
Getting ready for big things
01 month ago
One of the interesting things about innovation is that great ideas can come to many different people all at the same time. Have you ever been in a room with other people, and for whatever reason you all instantly became hungry for the same thing? That collective desire for chicken, or whatever food your group may have decided on at the time, is the same thing that happens throughout the entire world. Sometime’s it’s just “good idea” time, and no other place is that seen as often as in the world of innovation. When someone has a good idea, you can be pretty sure that pretty soon, someone else is going to have the same idea.
Taking that logic to the world of geographic micro-blogging, innovation still has the same trends as before. SpoonerSpot, as you know, is the premier geographic micro-blogging social networking site. Using our unique system you can simply click anywhere in the world, share a quick story and instantly your followers can see a customized map featuring the important places in your life. This creative and highly addictive system has already attracted several new members and allowed everyone on SpoonerSpot to highlight their world for their friends, family and everyone else to see!
But on that note other sites with similar concepts are already starting to pop up on the map. We’re not going to name names, because we’re bigger than that, but we’re now learning about a few different websites and mobile applications that are also letting their members post geographic experiences to friends. With several different variations, we’re noticing a new trend in this part of the social networking world, and we wanted to let you, the loyal Spooner, not to fear, because we’ve got everything under control!
First off, you’re probably wondering what it means for us when we see someone trying to do something similar to SpoonerSpot. Well, we think it’s great! One of the scary parts of innovation is that you might be making something that no one wants! When we start seeing people working on projects that resemble SpoonerSpot, it means we’re doing something right! We know SpoonerSpot is the best way for you to put your life on the map, and now that we see some similar products we know we’re right! We can’t wait until everyone’s heard about us and knows it too!
Second, there’s things that we definitely do better than anyone else. SpoonerSpot doesn’t work like normal social networking sites, blasting text at you left and right for you to (hopefully) see as your eyes scroll down the page. Social networking users are visual people, and the team at CitySpoon knows this! That’s why SpoonerSpot takes advantage of its giant, interactive global display. Viewing the SpoonerSpot information on a fully engaging, immersive map allows Spooners, like you, to really feel like part of the action. Sure, you can just read information, but why not live it? Jump into the map and truly start seeing the world through the eyes of the Spooners you follow. It’s geographic micro-blogging after all…that says to us that there needs to be a big map!
Competition eh? Challenges eh? We’re the CitySpoon team! We can accomplish anything, and that we shall! SpoonerSpot is the place to be for all of your geographic micro-blogging needs, and as we move forward this week we’ll be rolling out some great additions to make the SpoonerSpot experience even more incredible! Stay excited, keep on Spotting and stay tuned because we’re doing it all for you, loyal Spooner! Put your life on the map!