Zomato Launches Collections For Theme-Based Restaurant Discovery

Collections features popular restaurants across specific themes and trends at a particular location. So you can look at microbreweries in Delhi NCR, kick-ass burgers in Bangalore, pet-friendly joints in London or rooftop restaurants in Johannesburg.

"Having added a social layer to restaurant discovery, we wanted to go a step further and provide information that foodies want, but may not necessarily want to search for," said Deepinder Goyal, co-founder and CEO, Zomato. "With Collections, we've turned popular theme-based searches into bite-sized lists of restaurants that address specific use-cases. In addition to the search aspect of Zomato, Collections opens up a whole new world from the discover point of view."

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The theme or topic of a Collection is decided by Zomato's content team, and then an algorithm picks out the restaurants to include in that Collection, based on user ratings, reviews and specific tips like "don't miss the burger", Zomato co-founder Pankaj Chaddah told NDTV Gadgets. Collections do not include paid or sponsored listings, he added.

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City-specific tastes or trends are kept in mind while deciding the topic of collections, Chaddah said. For example, a Collection of pubs showing Champions League final might make sense in London, while a list of street food joints may be more apt for Delhi NCR, and beach bars in Lisbon.

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Interestingly, the name Collections, the idea, as well as the execution are pretty similar to what travel site Cleartrip had launched a while back.

"Collections provides restaurant information condensed into in a visually engaging format across Web and mobile to make restaurant discovery effortless", added Goyal.

(Also see: Personally Tech with Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal)