Yesterday evening, Google announced their new service, Hotpot, a mashup that combines social media with local info and check-in services. This marks yet another surge forward in the local arena that Google has made recently, along with the deployment of Google Place Search, launch of Google Tags and Boost ads, and more.
I haven’t kicked the tires yet on Hotpot via mobile, but I can see the services it offers via web:
Hotpot encourages you to rate businesses, and connect with your friends to get recommendations for places to try out.
While the service appears fairly robust and graphically well-designed, it’s unclear to me so far just how much traction it may get. (more…)
