Restaurant researches diners on Google, social media before reservation

By Mike Flacy April 14, 2014

google-search — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Detailed on Grub Street, a maître d’ at NYC restaurant Eleven Madison Park spends his afternoon Googling anyone that will be dining at the restaurant later in the evening. Attempting to glean information off social networks and other public sites, maître d’ Justin Roller searches for clues about special dates like birthdays or anniversaries as well as information about hometowns. For instance, Roller states “If I find out a guest is from Montana, and I know we have a server from there, we’ll put them together.”

Conceptually, the restaurant is attempting to use familiarity to improve on the guest’s experience. Even further, the maître d’ will look for specific interests. For example, if a guest publicly likes jazz music on their Facebook page or Twitter feed, they are paired up with a server that has similar interests and can naturally bring it up in conversation. Beyond personal information, Roller also scans through publicly posted pictures to link a face with a name as well as look for pictures of wine glasses or white coats. Those pictures could indicate that a wine connoisseur or a chef will be dining with the restaurant that evening.

eleven-madison-park — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Hypothetically, this type of research could benefit any restaurant that needs to make sure important guests are taken care of, especially guests that are particularly active on Yelp or food blogs. Of course, there’s a definite element of creepiness that could come across if someone’s private information isn’t handled properly.

There’s also the potential that this type of research could completely backfire. For instance, someone from a particular state or city may absolutely hate their hometown and wouldn’t appreciate talking to someone from the same region. The same goes for someone that’s trying to avoid celebrating their birthday and simply wants to have a private meal without any fanfare.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Contributing Editor

By day, I'm the content and social media manager for High-Def Digest, Steve's Digicams and The CheckOut on Ben's Bargains…

Social Media

What is Section 230? Inside the legislation protecting social media

social media on phone

A little known piece of legislation called Section 230 is making headlines after President Donald Trump's latest effort to repeal the legislation, demanding that Congress fold that repeal in with another round of stimulus checks, defense spending, and the massive bill that keeps the lights on in Washington D.C. It seems politicians are alwasy struggling to wrap their heads around social media and "Big Tech," a silly term for the technology giants that have defined the modern era.

It's not the first time Section 230 made waves, of course. Trump signed an executive order in May that targeted social media platforms and the content on their sites, aiming to remove the protections of Section 230 in the Communications Decency Act. By repealing Section 230, social networks would be legally responsible for what people post on their platforms. The law that protects speech over the internet has been around for more than 20 years, but has been targeted by politicians of both major parties, including Democratic president-elect Joe Biden.

Social Media

2020 forced Big Social to address its flaws, but it’s too late for an easy fix

The phrase "out of the frying pan, into the fire" is an incredibly apt description of the plight of the internet's social media giants in 2020. Already grappling to settle into their increasingly large roles in democracy and culture, social networks like Facebook and Twitter suddenly gained an even bigger role in our daily lives as the coronavirus pandemic took hold. In the face of this extra pressure, they had no choice but to adapt.

While these forced adaptations were no doubt difficult for the companies involved, the resulting changes have arguably been good ones -- not only for individual users, but for the world at large.
Too many fires to put out
When the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, social media was a natural fallback. People turned to their online networks for community updates, virtual hangouts, news, entertainment, and more. Giants such as Facebook and Twitter faced a fresh coronavirus-related “infodemic,” while at the same time, an urgent responsibility hung on their shoulders to police an influx of controversial political content from President Donald Trump and many others who were quickly racking up huge follower counts.

Social Media

Practically every major social app has a Stories function now. This is why

instagram launches location stories to more users 1

When Snapchat introduced the ability to post disappearing text and media over half a decade ago, no one expected that a scruffy new startup’s headlining feature would end up consuming a row of space at the top of every other social platform in a few years. But that’s exactly what has happened.

Snapchat’s Stories has flourished into a social network staple, and now the world's biggest tech companies are clamoring to bake this breakout format into their offerings. Today, a familiar row of avatars sits above all else on some of the most popular apps. You can now post these ephemeral “Stories” on Twitter, Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Google (for publishers), and possibly even Spotify in the near future.