Testing the mobile site–want to help?

The mobile site, http://www.eat.fi/mini is up and running, and we’ve tried to test it on as many phones as possible, but now we need your help.

We’d like to know:

1. Does it work on your phone? Let us know the brand and model number. Here’s where you can check your Nokia model number, your Sony Ericsson, your Siemens, and your Samsung.

You may also want to try downloading the Opera Mobile browser. It comes in a Mobile and a Mini version, depending on how fancy your phone is. (No, we have no affiliation with them)

2. How fast does it run?

1. Too slow to be used
2. Barely useable (if you’re patient)
3. Useable speed

3. How wide is it on your screen?

1. Too wide
2. Ok
3. Too narrow

The more information you can give us, the better chance we have of improving the service.

Over 1,000 visitors yesterday

We’ve hit an (admittedly) arbitrary numerical milestone, but we’re pleased anyway. This brings this week to 500-1000 visitors a day, with an average of about 700.

Behind the scenes

After these recent public changes, we’re going to focus on some more administrative and back-end things for a while, fixing small glitches and streamlining processes. You probably won’t notice most of the changes we’ll be making, but they’ll provide a better foundation for the next bigger public updates. We’ll keep you posted.

Swedish version public

We decided that since the Swedish version is fully functional, we’d open it to the public now and get feedback about potential translation mistakes from all users. We’re still in the process of translating the FAQ, Feedback, and About pages, and hope to be done with that soon, but in the meantime, you can already comment on restaurants in Swedish, and restaurant owners can add info in Swedish as well.

By doing this we hope the site will better serve the entire Helsinki population by, among other things, allowing all opinions to be heard in the language the user is most comfortable with.

997 visitors today

So far, we’ve been getting 300-600 visitors a day, but this month has been holding pretty steady at 500-600, and then suddenly today 997 visitors, and 2222 pageviews. Summer must really be over.

Coming soon: Swedish version

We have found a translator who is translating the site to Swedish. You can already see some of this on the eat mobile site. You will be able to write restaurant reviews in Swedish as well, and have them show up on the English and Finnish sites.

You can see our work in progress here: http://www.eat.fi/?setLang=6

If you know Swedish and find mistakes, please let us know and we’ll correct them as soon as possible.

Eat.fi mobile version out of beta!

Go have a look with your cell phone, or check it out with your computer first. www.eat.fi/mini

The minisite is designed to be light and fast with a bare minimum of graphics, so you won’t have to load so many kilobytes to find what you need. Possible uses:

1. You’re at a bar late with your friends, and want to know what places still offer food.
2. You’d like to review a restaurant you’ve just been to, or would like to read what others have said about it. Type its name into the first text field and click “search”.
3. You’re out, and can’t remember where that good Chinese restaurant was. Do a general search, or type its name into the first text field. Click on the address to see a map.

Enjoy!