Opentable.com
Most of the time I write about information based websites. Gizmodo, Panbo and Cribcandy provide me with countless hours of distraction during tedious and boring times.
Once in a while though I come across a web service that is truly compelling and makes me think,
Wow, these guys are really on to something. One such site is www.opentable.com which operates a restaurant reservation engine in the U.S. (and I think a few cities in Europe).
Whenever you want to make a reservation you log-in and select from a list of restaurants or search by cuisine or location or price based on the time you want to eat and the size of your party. Once you have selected where you want to eat the available seating times are displayed and you can just choose what you want. Opentable will even send an email confirmation to all of the people in your party with directions to the restaurant. Need to change or cancel the reservation? No problem. Just log-in and do it. The hostess will receive a notification of your change. Best of all, the more you use the service, the more points you earn towards dining gift certificates. If this company is ever taken public I'm going to buy buy buy!
By Myron Gushlak