FOOD + DRINK RECIPES + menus

Tastespotting is Back

tastespotting

Your old submissions to Tastespotting live again. I am glad I added new Google Alerts on my blog name yesterday because this is how I found out that Tastespotting is back online.

We know more about the big saga that led to the temporary close down of Tastespotting. A business split occurred between Jean of NOTCOT and Sarah J. Gim, the editor of Tastespotting.

Sarah is now the owner of Tastespotting. She continues to run the hugely popular food porn site. The front end and back end systems of Tastespotting had to be rebuilt. It is still almost at part with the original site.

What Is Lacking?

One important feature that is lacking is the preview of a submission. In an interview to Food Interviews, Sarah said that they are working on an improved version of the Preview function. The upcoming Submission Preview will give the users more powered than the original one. It should be ready in a week or two.

What Is New?

Every member of the Tastespotting community can add a 250 by 250 pixels avatar image. I put that on my To-do list.

I like that the URL of the submitted story is written on top of the picture. Knowing ahead that information can save us time. It encourages us to discover new blogs and it reminds us to visit old favorites.

Improve Your Chances to Be Selected

Sarah will continue to be picky on the picture quality of each submission. I am glad because it ensures the level of quality that made this site a success.

If like me, you wish to polish my photography skills; we got one more reasons to do so. In the Food Interviews, Sarah Gim gives a few tips on how to create an outstanding food picture and how to write a caption.

foodgawker

New Players

In the interim, similar sites emerged to try to fill the void. One that stands ahead of the crowd is FoodGawker by Chuck of Sunday Nite Dinner. It stands ahead again for the visual quality of the featured posts.

One feature that is great on FoodGawker is that we can follow the status of our submissions. They also posted an overall submission reports on Twitter. So you can know that all submissions prior to midnight were reviewed. It is fun to see the interaction between social networks.

FoodGawker started as an homage site to Tastespotting. Now, they must find a niche of their own. The cooking industry is large enough for the two to coexist.

Which food porn cravings site(s) do not plan to visit on a daily basis?

>>> Sourcing:
Get inspired: Tastespotting
Get inspired: FoodGawker
Via: Inspiration From Electric Artists- 06.27.08 [NOTCOT]
Via: Interview with Sarah J Gim of Tastespotting [Food Interviews]

  • Chuck
    July 3, 2008 at 13:37

    Thanks for highlighting foodgawker! Given that the site is not quite 3 weeks old, we’re honored to be mentioned in the same breath as TasteSpotting.

    As the “new kid on the block”, we’re taking it day-by-day and just trying to improve the quality of the site.

    Although there will be some photo overlap between FG and TS, we have different editors and I think you’ll see differences in the selections that make it on the sites.

  • Renée
    July 3, 2008 at 21:53

    Cool – et la première recette que je rencontre: tequila lime shrimps. Tout à fait de circonstance!

  • At Home with Kim Vallee
    July 3, 2008 at 22:12

    Renée: Jerome and I make delicious tequila lime shrimps. With our recipe, we cook the shrimps on the BBQ. I will check the one you saw.

  • Mary
    July 9, 2008 at 08:54

    Kim, love your blog! Also, I noticed there’s more on this saga at http://www.tastespotting.org , such a pity that the new TasteSpotting isn’t quite the same anymore. As for Food Gawker, they’re doing a great job, I really hope they keep it up!