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Comment by Urgo | Hacker News Reader

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Urgo·

How would you say your app will stand out from Street Food Finder?

https://streetfoodfinder.com/

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.streetfood...

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Great question! My goal with Sizzzle is to build a more social, user-friendly platform, rather than simply a tool to find food trucks. Sizzzle will ask users to review food trucks, and unlike Street Food Finder and other alternatives, Sizzzle will present vendors from an algorithm, rather than an arbitrary ranking. The app will also provide users with personalized recommendations.

> Sizzzle will present vendors from an algorithm, rather than an arbitrary ranking.

How will you distinguish this for your users and allow their input to affect the algorithm? I have a hard time distinguishing between “arbitrary ranking” and “algorith”m because I have no control over them in almost every case.

Right, I totally understand that. Users will be able to set their preferences (Mexican, Acai, etc) and show interest in vendors by saving their profiles and writing positive reviews. Recommendations will mostly be based on these data points - specified preferences and demonstrated interest. In most cases, the algorithm will be similarity-based (comparing trends between users).

In searches, users will be able to choose the method through which vendors are sorted (location, rating, etc), and there will be a separate section on the homepage for food trucks recommended by our algorithm.

I will note as well that we do not look at nor share any information regarding individual users or even trends, aside from simple view/visit metrics.

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