I’ve just discovered Yahoo! Sketch-a-Search for the iPhone today – and it’s one of those apps I scratch my head about, wondering how the heck I missed this for so many months. It’s been around since March and I’d never even seen it mentioned – or if I did maybe I ignored it because I don’t generally find Yahoo apps / services very interesting. Well, this one sure is.
This app lets you search for restaurants with no need for typing – you just tap and draw on the map screen to select an area you want to look in. Here’s more from its App Store page:
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.
Features:
✔ Fun, faster search: Use your finger to draw and select keywords from a menu—no typing required
✔ Sketch-a-Search: Draw a loop around your desired dinner location, or sketch a line that represents your commute, and you’ll get results in that area
✔ Get the results you want: Search by type of cuisine, atmosphere and/or rating
✔ Current location or choose a city: Find restaurants near you or in a specific city
✔ The information you need: Get phone numbers, ratings, directions, photos, and menu pricing at-a-glance.
✔ Share via email with friends
I’ve been playing with the app this morning and I think it’s a great little app. It lets you filter by cuisine, ambiance, or Yahoo Reviews star ratings (i.e. choose whether you want to specify a number of stars), and toggle just Zagat-rated on or off.
Once you draw the area you want to find places in, the app thinks for a few moments and then shows you pushpins for the results. Tapping on one shows you the place name and address, photos, phone number (with tap to dial), directions, and a website link that can be opened in an inline browser.
In addition to tapping on pushpins, you can also tap to View Results in a list in the lower portion of the app’s screen.
I’m very glad I finally found this app. I only heard of it because I saw that an iPad version of it has come out this week. I’ll definitely be giving that one a look as well. It would be great if other places of interest, in addition to restaurants, are added to the app in future, as it’s such a quick and easy way to search.
You can find Yahoo! Sketch-a-Search in the App Store now, and both the iPhone and iPad versions are free apps.
Continue reading:
- Everything New Apple Just Announced (Septembe
- Apple Watch Pre-Order
- Apple Research Kit launches with 5 Apps
- Apple TV now only $69
TAGS: iphone apps
