Web 2 Ireland

Innovation by food related sites has always been lacking, possibly because most of them are built by experts in food rather than technology. So I was excited to hear at the start of the week about a new Irish site called iFoods.tv which launches today and promises quite a bit more than a discussion board and the odd recipe.

The business is run by Chef Niall Harbison who started his career in some the most highly regarded and controversial restaurants in Ireland. He has spent the past few years working as a personal chef to a many celebrities so it is interesting to see him moving into this space.

First impressions are excellent with videos and recipes on the front page. They have designed the site to be utterly non-threatening to those who think Social Networks are for teenagers. If all you want to do is look for content and chat in the obligatory phpBB forums then this site will suit you fine.

In fact, I initially wondered if their press release tag line of Facebook for Foodies was accurate. But they have done the sensible thing for launch and placed all that functionality on your profile page. Sign-up asks a LOT of questions but many of them are light-hearted like star-sign, favourite ingredient, favourite TV chef etc. The profile page shows a lot of this and provides the key social networking features of friends and your wall (to steal an FB term).

Where I see big potential for the site is in the ability to upload your own video recipes and food photos. If your activity is visible to your friends as per the News Feed on FB, then I can see this becoming a real hang-out site for the ever growing foodie community in both Ireland and internationally. Their revenue model looks like mainly Freemium with partnering via competitions. However they do need to explain the benefits of the Gold account better.

There are lots of feature they could (and probably will) add. Flickr/Photobox integration, YouTube/Kyte integration, RSS feeds, Events, aggregation of member blog posts etc but they have started with a very solid core and I expect it to take off quickly.

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Comment posted by Ian
at 11/14/2007 5:58:55 PM

I have used Kyte for a while now and i see a great potential for foodies. Kyte could prove to be a very powerful platform for chefs online since they could create shows once and instantly appear everywhere the channel is embedded. Kyte has tools that will allow chefs to post videos of them cooking as well as links to online recipes, etc. The possibilities are endless

Comment posted by Sheesh. Day Late, Dollar Short
at 11/10/2007 6:26:14 PM

Day late, dollar short. Unless, of course, some GREAT features are released? Alas, none of that on iFoods.tv.

Video-based cooking social network sites up long before iFoods.tv:

IPTVRecipes.com
GroupRecipes.com
iFood.tv

Plus others who have launched recently.

(I'm a chef/marketing geek and take an interest

Of the above, IPTVRecipes.com and GroupRecipes.com get a big thumbs up, with IPTVRecipes.com getting 2 thumbs up for their recent beat YouTube feature of allowis us cooks and chefs to upload multiple files for 1 recipe (their system sews all video files together, for those of us who use Digital Cameras and Videos Phones [stop and go makes multiple videos]) and allowing up to 1Gb of space *per recipe* (allowing cooks to educate their audience, and walk you through the process, like TV cooking shows). They're ahead of these other sites in what we need.

Someone asked about iFood.tv versus iFoods.tv and whether it was a network, this is the kicker, LOL. The answer is no, they are not a network. iFoods.tv are 2 chefs in Ireland while iFood.tv was made by a couple of techies from India. The kicker? iFood.tv didn't buy the domain iFoods.tv when they bought their domain/opened for business – . Lord, InternetBusiness101 gang, if a like domain exists which people can easily (and mistakingly) type in their browser exists AND it's available to purchase, BUY IT. On the flip side, iFoods.tv came in the market 1.5 years after iFood.tv so they reap the benefit of typos from people going to iFood.tv. But, if they do well, reverse the scenario.

Next article, please!

Comment posted by Claude Gelinas
at 11/9/2007 11:24:30 PM

Although I haven't signed up to become an iFoods TV member, I just went through half a dozen of their smart, upbeat and no non-sense food preparation videos.

I'm feeling much more confident about preparing the next few meals for my wife and kids. I'll probably spend more quality time in the kitchen too!

Comment posted by haydn
at 9/5/2007 1:42:20 AM

I mistakenl went to ifood.tv but came up with a food site anyway that's not unlike ifood.tv. Is it a network?

Comment posted by Steve E
at 8/23/2007 2:54:13 PM

I love it! Any site which shows you how to cook a chicken with a beer can up it's arse gets the thumbs up from me

More seriously, social networking has been ready made for food and recipes, this looks like it could go far!

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 at 6:12 am and is filed under Irish Web2.0 News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.