Zest Maps Is the AI-Powered ‘Spiritual Successor to Foursquare’
Zest Maps Is the AI-Powered ‘Spiritual Successor to Foursquare’
Zest Maps：AI 驱动的“Foursquare 精神续作”
As Mario Gomez-Hall walks me through his new restaurant discovery app, Zest Maps, the founder pauses on its user leaderboard and highlights a profile topping the charts with over 1,000 visits logged. It’s Foursquare cofounder Dennis Crowley helping test the beta version. “He’s given us really useful feedback,” Gomez-Hall says. “It’s sort of a spiritual successor to Foursquare.” (For those who may not remember, Foursquare was a hot location check-in social app around 2010 when GPS-enabled apps were first trending.)
当 Mario Gomez-Hall 向我演示他的新餐厅发现应用 Zest Maps 时，这位创始人停在了用户排行榜页面，并指出了一个记录了超过 1000 次到访、位居榜首的个人资料。那正是 Foursquare 的联合创始人 Dennis Crowley，他正在帮助测试该应用的测试版。“他给了我们非常有用的反馈，”Gomez-Hall 说，“这算是 Foursquare 的精神续作。”（对于那些可能已经不记得的人，Foursquare 是 2010 年左右的一款热门地理位置签到社交应用，当时 GPS 驱动的应用正处于流行初期。）
The core gist of Zest Maps, rolling out today for iOS users (no Android support yet), is the automatic logging of every restaurant and cafe you visit by tracking your credit card swipes and using your data to highlight other food spots you may enjoy. The app’s AI tools analyze your dining history and tailor a map of nearby recommendations with photos and descriptions of each spot’s vibe.
Zest Maps 于今日面向 iOS 用户推出（暂不支持 Android），其核心功能是通过追踪你的信用卡刷卡记录，自动记录你到访的每一家餐厅和咖啡馆，并利用这些数据为你推荐你可能喜欢的其他美食场所。该应用的 AI 工具会分析你的用餐历史，并定制一张包含附近推荐的地图，同时附上每家店的照片和氛围描述。
Zest also aggregates this user data to flag up-and-coming restaurants in your area, along with the new spots your friends visit. “We only show the first visit to a place,” he says. “So, if you keep going back to the same pizzeria, we’re not spamming your friends with the same pizzeria.” Visits to chain restaurants also aren’t often highlighted on Zest. The app pays more attention to your date night at the Brazilian steakhouse than some after-work McDouble.
Zest 还会汇总这些用户数据，以标记你所在地区的新兴餐厅，以及你朋友去过的新店。“我们只显示对某家店的首次到访，”他说，“所以，如果你反复去同一家披萨店，我们不会用同一家店的信息去刷屏你的朋友。”连锁餐厅的到访记录通常也不会在 Zest 上重点展示。相比于下班后随便吃的麦当劳，这款应用更关注你在巴西牛排馆的约会之夜。
Gomez-Hall knows that some users will be hesitant to link their cards, emphasizing that the feature is optional and facilitated by Plaid, a popular platform that connects fintech apps to your bank; services like Google Wallet and Wealthfront use Plaid. “We’re not seeing your OnlyFans,” he says. “We’re only looking at food and drink.” In addition to only analyzing dining transactions, Zest allows users to control who can see their visits as friends and delete any restaurant visit.
Gomez-Hall 知道一些用户会担心绑定银行卡，他强调该功能是可选的，并由 Plaid 提供支持。Plaid 是一个将金融科技应用与银行连接的热门平台，Google Wallet 和 Wealthfront 等服务都在使用它。“我们看不到你的 OnlyFans 消费记录，”他说，“我们只关注餐饮消费。”除了仅分析餐饮交易外，Zest 还允许用户控制谁能看到他们的到访记录，并支持删除任何餐厅的到访记录。
The founder’s profile breaks down his 966 logged visits into the top-five categories: cafe, bakery, Thai, pizza, and Japanese. His profile shows Delicious Thai Kitchen and Ike’s Love & Sandwiches in Oakland as a couple of his “go-to” spots, as well as saved lists of restaurants he wants to visit, either nearby or on vacation. Whenever a friend goes to a spot you’ve saved, it’s likely highlighted on your Zest Map.
这位创始人的个人资料将他记录的 966 次到访分成了五大类：咖啡馆、烘焙店、泰国菜、披萨和日本料理。他的资料显示，位于奥克兰的 Delicious Thai Kitchen 和 Ike’s Love & Sandwiches 是他的“常去”餐厅，此外还有他想去尝试的餐厅列表，无论是附近的还是度假时想去的。每当有朋友去了你保存过的餐厅，它很可能会在你的 Zest 地图上高亮显示。
His aspirations with Zest are focused, looking to complement apps people currently use rather than attempting to displace established players. “A niche network is maybe even more valuable, in a lot of ways, because you have such a focused user base,” he says. “We don’t really want to try to be this everything app that beats Google and Yelp. We want to be the thing about food discovery and tracking.”
他对 Zest 的愿景非常明确，旨在补充人们目前使用的应用，而不是试图取代现有的巨头。“一个垂直领域的网络在很多方面可能更有价值，因为你拥有非常专注的用户群，”他说，“我们并不想成为那种试图打败 Google 和 Yelp 的‘万能应用’。我们只想专注于美食发现和记录。”
Gomez-Hall sees younger adults in major city hubs, where restaurant options are more bountiful, as his core user base, plus people who want more personalized food recommendations when they travel.
Gomez-Hall 将大城市中心地区的年轻人视为其核心用户群，因为那里的餐厅选择更丰富；此外，他还看好那些在旅行时想要获得更个性化美食推荐的人群。
In April, I wrote about why you should think twice before sharing financial information with AI tools like ChatGPT, which remains true. But I was surprised by just how much I liked the idea of Zest. The app’s value proposition will be too invasive for some who want to retain a tighter sense of privacy over their data, and it inherently won’t be as useful for people in more rural areas where dining options are more limited and well-trodden.
四月时，我曾写过为什么在与 ChatGPT 等 AI 工具共享财务信息前要三思，这一点依然成立。但我惊讶地发现，我竟然非常喜欢 Zest 的理念。对于那些希望对个人数据保持更高隐私度的用户来说，该应用的价值主张可能显得过于侵入性；而且对于餐饮选择有限且相对固定的农村地区用户来说，它的实用性天生就会打折扣。
My partner and I are constantly chatting about our need to visit a better variety of spots for dinner in our San Francisco neighborhood. Automatically seeing every sushi counter and taco shop we’ve already hit, with recommendations about where to go next, sounds like it would save us from our standard 30-minute deliberation period of scrolling through multiple apps and online reviews.
我和我的伴侣经常讨论，我们需要在旧金山社区尝试更多样化的晚餐地点。如果能自动看到我们已经去过的每一家寿司店和塔可店，并获得下一步去哪里的建议，听起来能帮我们省去那常规的 30 分钟纠结时间——即在多个应用和在线评论之间反复刷屏。
Plus, I would love to see more insights into where my friends are actually dining out, beyond their blurry Instagram stories. My inner voyeur wants to know where you really went to eat during that week-long Tokyo getaway because I need recommendations for my next trip. (I’m also just nosy.)
此外，我希望能看到朋友们真正去哪里用餐的更多信息，而不仅仅是他们模糊的 Instagram 快拍。我内心深处的窥探欲想知道你在那次为期一周的东京之旅中到底去了哪里吃饭，因为我需要为我的下一次旅行做参考。（而且，我纯粹就是爱打听。）
The social location-sharing aspect of Foursquare was tremendously popular when it first came out over a decade ago, but since then, the novelty of GPS-powered apps has worn off. Today, many users are increasingly sensitive about how their location data is being shared. If the app can maintain a sense of trust with the users who choose to share their info, Zest Maps may be a sharp successor to Foursquare, reviving social food recommendations and offering picks honed to what you really want to eat.
十多年前 Foursquare 刚推出时，其社交地理位置共享功能非常受欢迎，但从那以后，GPS 驱动应用的新鲜感已经消退。如今，许多用户对自己的位置数据如何被共享变得越来越敏感。如果这款应用能够与选择共享信息的用户保持信任感，Zest Maps 或许能成为 Foursquare 的出色继任者，重振社交美食推荐，并提供真正符合你口味的精选建议。