DaveO

Another way to find exclusive information from dr.com is to use the following method. It will turn up similar results in either bing.com or google.com: In the search box type: site:donrockwell.com (space) then whatever you wish to search on. for instance if I want references to pizza from dr.com I'd type site:donrockwell.com pizza You'll find hundreds of references....all from dr.com

Being way too old for this I have ZERO idea if it would work or not. But as long as he is full of ideas and dramatically different concepts I would heavily promote this into Reddit DC and the suburbs. Reddit is so often the describer of cutting edge stuff coming out of a young mostly male demographic. But if any of the ideas do catch on, Reddit is an incredibly powerful way to spread news about it.

I'm sure it does as far as the google algo works. Chowhound is a big site with a lot more "web power" as far as google's algo's go than DR.com. Google's and Bing's algo's are different.

@jayandstacey: I agree with you in the context that if you look deep into Bing's results for the search phrase donrockwell restaurants they are "better" in that they far more consistently reference something from dr.com. Meanwhile the deep results for Google don't and do reference chowhound among other things...but definitely a lot of chowhound. If I were researching the depth and breath of commentary via dr.com bing would be a better place to find good results. I personally don't think its a money thing. I think google's results have sort of outsmarted themselves in this case. Bing's results provide more references to dr.com. Both of the search results have links to alternative searches that seem related. In google's list though it actually includes a lot of chowhound. If I wanted chowhound results I would have searched on chowhound instead.

Yes. Google keeps changing aspects of its ranking algo(s). Yes I do think they get confused at times and in that regard give unsatisfactory results to a search. On top of that there are other factors: One of which these days is personalization with regard to anyone's searching habits. For instance if you had searched a lot recently on or for chowhound you might get results with chowhound in the rankings. If I hadn't searched on chowhound, I might not get the volume of responses showing chowhound. But the results were unsatisfactory for you. Deeply unsatisfactory. I also don't think google is "selling" the results you saw to chowhound, for a lot of reasons. Mostly the chowhound references started showing after the 10th result, meaning for most searchers they wouldn't be found till the 2nd, 3rd or latter pages. Only a teeny percentage of searchers go to the 2nd page or beyond. One group who does that are "search engine optimizers" (SEO's) I do that stuff somewhat). Researchers look for deep results. People unhappy with the results on the first page turn to subsequent pages. But overall its a tiny percentage of searchers. Another reason is that as I replicated your search(s) I didn't see adds. Nobody is advertising on the DR results that I tried. Finally for whatever chowhound is paying google in adwords I suggest its a pittance. For instance Google has special "relationships with auto manufacturer advertisers, that are huge advertisers (ie Toyota, GM, Ford, etc) but not with huge auto distributors that might generate hundreds of millions or over 1 billion in sales and lord knows how much in google advertising. I believe you have to be an extraordinary mega advertiser to have a "special" relationship with google if at all. Google might treat results on pages after the first page slightly differently from a ranking perspective in that they aren't seen as much. (Parenthetically at this point I'd add that nobody outside of google knows exactly what they are doing...and probably the engineers that develop and alter these algo's don't know either until the results from a change show--> then they evaluate the results.). But, you were deeply dissatisfied with the results. That is what counts, at least on a one time basis. In the context of wanting to see many references to DR.com and see what the references might be the google results were deficient while Bing's results were more satisfactory. I'd send this to google. I'd say your results were deficient. Bing's were better. Maybe I'd start using Bing. BTW: I think its a shame DR.com results don't show better in google. It's a great read!!!!!

I think there are a combination of factors here not the least of which is the algo is confused about the sites and references.

Just noticed something with regard to Yelp and negative reviews. One of our business sites, the DC/Arlington Bartending School has carried one devastating slam review on Yelp for over 3.5 years. We Know it was planted by a competitor. We complained about it and tried to get it removed for about 8 months when it first showed. We started complaining about it again last year and for about 4 months. We sent yelp inside confidential information that we thought was sufficient to get them to acknowledge that the review was faked, subsidized by a competitor. The original reviewer has probably not posted in two years and I believe only has 3 reviews in total. As of today I noticed the review was removed from being shown and is now filtered. That had to occur recently in the last two weeks or so. Why??? Of course I don't know. Was it a delayed reaction to all our complaints and evidence? Was it b/c the reviewer hasn't posted anything in years and is no longer deemed a "reliable yelper" via Yelp's algo? Was it a combination of such events? To all restauranteurs: check your yelp reviews. Have they changed any of their algo's in any ways and are different volumes or types of reviews being shown and/or filtered? (If they call us again, as they did in Nov/Dec and Feb, abt advertising---I'll assume this move had everything to do with advertising and nothing to do w/ anything else )

Were I to strive to be an eloquent food writer I would give serious credence to the above comments. Fortunately I have no interest in attaining that level. This conversation brings to mind a story I heard a week or two ago about a server at a restaurant/bar during Sunday brunch. Upon delivering the first part of the order, the server (still evidently suffering from a hangover from the previous night) told his patrons: (somewhat paraphrased) "I'll bring the rest of your shit in a little bit". Now that is appetizing!!!!!!

That is a generous and menchy move to say the least. Good luck to one and all.

Fascinating. I've probably eaten there 25 times over a loooooooooooooong period of time simply because of convenience and having a hankering for some kind of Chinese for the moment, not considering quality or any other attribute. and btw: It was never memorable. In all that time I never realized or focused on the Chinese or Mandarin menu. A real find!!!!!

One of the grads of the bar school is a bartender there. He recently told me they are doing bang up pre theater business plus additional business. It seems fine. Possibly Bob Kinkead's name goes a long way and they may not need the web updates as do so many other new restaurants.

I don't get it. Is there some sort of cross ownership between Chadwicke's and Clydes??? The current Chadwicke's website only has Georgetown and Olde Towne. ON the FB page there is reference to different ownership(s). Could there be two, three??? I assume all staff are the same... I'm pretty sure King Street Blues which is more than 25 years old and now has three locations has at least 2 ownership groups, if not three. I suppose some of these long term multi site restaurants end up splitting up ownerships. I think in King Street's case the menus are identical.

Toscana Grill has reopened today following a burst water pipe and a generous give away of free food to hundreds. On their re opening day they are featuring their pasta Monday meal with discounts on selected pasta dishes. (I'm not associated with this restaurant..but I do like them)

....a little tidbit I learned about flair bartenders the other day: Our school was contacted about providing 2 flair bartenders for a party/event on a Saturday. The offer was for $150/person for 4 hours plus tips. It was some sort of corporate event. I would assume some range of anywhere from $50-200 for tips. Many of the better flair bartenders in this region are connected to our school as former students and instructors. I called one of them who is in the middle of it and knows all of them. He responded that they are all working and that they are all making more than that on a Saturday. Not a bad gig IMHO. (the really good ones are better than most everyone at a TGIF.)

Its Saturday, so I guess you are on your way. You received tremendous reviews here in a variety of threads. Best of luck.

With James Gandolfini having passed away I was thinking about the Soprano's: An eloquent discussion about the wonders of Italian food from two characters on the Sopranos.

I've stopped at the Clarendon location a number of times for convenience. yet I think its incredibly mediocre. I've had slices, whole pies, some of the pasta dishes. All around ....on each choice..just so so...tres mediocre. nothing exciting about it. Jeez. James Gandolfini just passed away. Tony Soprano. Maybe Pete's doesn't care. okay...Pete's is from Connecticut...not New Jersey. I can't help but think neighborhood pizza places should be like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6cAdJd3wGc and on top of that....the pizza should be good!!! ....and come to think of it...here is an exquisite Soprano's perspective on espresso, Italian coffee's and other Italian foods: One of the more elegant discourses on food one will ever find: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUKJWsnAAXs

Boy, I would hope Pittsburgh, Columbus, and Indianapolis have creative chefs, good restaurants and meals. They are reasonably sized cities. I've been to those cities and most of the time with limited time or busy schedules that didn't allow me to explore some restaurants even as i saw stimulating and interesting comments from diners (if the time permitted) As to the Post volume of comments: hm. 600 comments in about 2-3 days. That is a lot. There is something to be said for being big media or becoming big media one way or the other. The trick, or the magic, or the well funded effort is to get there. I didn't look through but the first couple of comments. So they aren't curated, moderately controlled or whatever. That volume speaks to the potential entire readership as the 600 comments represents a tiny portion of total readers. and btw: I've eated off of countless menus from chains without thinking about it too much. and after reading comments above, yep...I suppose they were virtually all representative of the great world of food mediocrity representing certain "themes" that work...big portions, heavily salted, and tons of advertising. etc etc. Meanwhile I pass by La Tagliata a lot. The outside always looks busy. When possible I've glanced inside and seen it both crowded and sometimes less so.

Its not supposed to be browser specific. Its being rolled out...so it will show on all desktop and tablet browsers Is it better or worse than before?

LOL. use a mobile. and/or contact google and tell them you hate it and why you hate it!!!

That is fascinating. Would you do it, Zora? Its a tremendous idea and application for wonderful cooks and for travelers, let alone local foodies.

Yesterday Google changed the way it presents information about restaurants in a city, a neighborhood, by type etc. Lots of people use google search to find this information. https://plus.google.com/+google/posts/KpsbyvHUotN One very fast moving search marketer did an immediate study about the new presentation, a carousel of pictures of restaurants at the top of the page. What was very interesting IMHO were the one by one comments of people who were tasked with looking at this view...and how they proceeded to find out about restaurants. The link to the article, the search reviews and then videos showing how these people reacted: -> http://niftymarketing.com/10-random-peoples-reactions-to-google-local-carousel/ Of note, I think the test was done in upstate Idaho, using random people...who probably don't spend a lot of time searching for restaurants in chicago...but interesting to see their results and how they proceeded to find out about restaurants.

In passing by there over the past few weeks it appears to be reasonably or pretty busy, though I haven't checked comments on that "other website" whatever it is called, welp, or blelp, or drelp, or whatever it is.

Whether you are a consumer or a restaurateur, and if you search in google for restaurants by type and town, neighborhood, city, etc. there is a new google presentation in town. Its now visible on all desktops, it's been visible on tablets since Dec, its not showing on mobile. Here is the link per google's announcement: https://plus.google.com/+google/posts/KpsbyvHUotN and here is a screen shot on the above the fold visual results for a search for seafood Alexandria I have no idea how this will affect traffic to restaurant sites. Its new, announced and delivered today. I'm curious as to reactions.

yeah.... Its curious: of the many Richard's in this world, how many become Ricks and how many become Dicks????