Yesterday, Google released an early version of their new recommendation engine for Places - Google Hotpot. The service is designed around rating and reviewing local businesses, taking data from Google users themselves as opposed to pulling it from sources like Yelp.

Competition in this area is hotting up.  Facebook's recent release - also confusingly named 'Places', aims at a different area, but you can't deny that there is a certain amount of overlap. Read More...

TechCrunch have got a good article about how Facebook Deals is really starting to take off. The service, which launched last week, is discussed in more detail in my previous post.  It's going to be interesting to see how successful the new service proves to be. Read More...