Yahoo released the Sketch-a-Search iPhone app that lets you search with your finger. Say you are searching for a restaurant within 5 blocks of your current location but want to avoid a certain area, just draw a shape on the map and that area becomes your search area.
No keywords, or typing—just draw on your screen with your finger to identify where you want to search. You’ll get a bird’s eye view of your restaurant results, all conveniently located near your destination.
Click HERE if you can not see the embedded video above.
How to use Sketch-a-Search:
When you launch the Yahoo app, Google Maps (yes Google Maps) loads and finds your current location.
You can zoom the map in and out if you need to. Then press the green button in the middle of the screen and use your finger to draw a search area.
The app will list restaurants within your search area along with reviews and their star rating.
You can also filter the results by restaurant cuisine, ambiance, and/or rating.
“What do you do when you’re looking for a restaurant in a certain area or section of town, and you don’t know the name of the neighborhood, or even its ZIP code?” Ariel Seidman, Yahoo’s director of Mobile Search products, said in a blog post. “Now with the Sketch-a-Search app, you can draw a circle around the general area on the map—around the San Francisco waterfront, let’s say—and voilà, restaurants appear.” via eWeek.com
As of right now, you can only search for restaurants, coffee shops, and some hotels. However, Yahoo plans to expand to other categories like real estate.
Searching for real estate with the app would be very convenient. Right now most real estate search engines allow you to search an area but that is usually fairly large. What if you wanted to find a house or apartment on one side of a Highway or Interstate and close to a park? You would be able to draw your search area on the map to narrow your search results.
I used the app today and interacting with the map to narrow my search results was fun. Right now the app is a little buggy, like not being able to find several cities I searched for. However, the app has the potential to be extremely useful and shows how searching for local businesses or real estate could change.
The iPhone app is free. You can find the app in the app store.
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