A few years ago, we had a nice talk with an executive from Urbanspoon (over a lunchtime whiskey cocktail), and we've always been fans of the company. They are a fellow Seattle-area company, and were pioneers in the early days of phone apps with their "shake-to-search" for a random restaurant.
The app is going away.
And Pecos Pit BBQ is fantastic, by the way.
What Happened
In January, New Delhi-based Zomato, a restaurant search venture backed with $113 million in venture funding, announced that it was acquiring Urbanspoon for $60 million.
Urbanspoon let go about 10 percent of its employees and planned to phase out its popular restaurant-finding app.
Urbanspoon was a runaway success and a darling of Apple after its restaurant-finding app became an early hit on the iOS platform. Apple featured it in stores and TV ads in 2008 after it launched the App Store.
The innovative iPhone feature allowed users to shake the device in order to find nearby restaurants, but the feature is not being carried over to the Zomato app.
A Little Discussion
Seattle-based Geekwire discussed the shutdown on Saturday on Geekwire Radio.
Jump to 19 minutes in to hear the discussion.