Which is Your Fave Italian Restaurant?

You can answer such a question through a friend-to-friend review service Localfave. It allows users to get location-based venue recommendations, while simultaneously allowing them to remain discrete.

“High-value” is derived from the fact that reviews are strictly based upon information most relevant to the user – the opinions of friends, it says.

“Location-based services are so helpful, but the average user may not want to explicitly share their location as many services require,” said Vishal K. Gupta (pictured above), CEO of Localfave.

“At Localfave, our goal is to provide a vehicle for our users to rank and categorize the places they’ve been in the past and to share their experiences easily with friends. That’s Localfave. It’s a location-based service for everyone.”

Recently, Yelp, a global online business review site, opened for trading after its initial public offering (IPO) in which it raised $107.25 million in gross proceeds. (Read: Yelp Celebrates IPO and First Day of Trading on NYSE)

The “fave” mechanism surfaces when a venue is given a review above four stars, at which point the service automatically flags the venue for the user.  If more than one venue has been given a rating above four stars, the service challenges an individual to pick their “fave” in a given category (e.g. “Which Italian restaurant is your fave?”).

Users can then share this information, from their local neighborhood or global destinations, with others friends using the service. And in turn, users are also able to explore the world through the advice and past experiences of their friends, explains the company.

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“We’ve noticed that it is harder and harder to discover truly great venues. One person’s 5-star review, is another person’s 3-star. This is the reason we created the idea of a ‘fave’. Ultimately, knowing that your friend’s favorite sushi joint is around the corner is much more important than knowing that it has averaged 3.5 stars,” said Pat McCreary, CTO of Localfave.

Not only does Localfave allow individuals to know which friends have been to a given venue, but it also provides an integrated Q&A service that allows them to communicate with their friends in real-time.

Launched Friday, March 9, Localfave is available now on iOS devices, with a full HTML 5 Web service available at www.Localfave.com. Localfave is headquartered in the East Village in New York City.

Photo courtesy: Localfave