You asked, we listened – new feature on AllergyEats

AllergyEats was launched to the public in February, 2010.  That followed 20 months of consultation and development with many outsiders who were critical in helping shape our original vision into the much better AllergyEats you see today.

Still, we knew it wouldn’t perfect from day 1.  It was time to go live and let user feedback help guide future modifications.  Thankfully, many of you have come through with great suggestions and constructive criticisms over these first 6+ months.  I personally read all the messages and respond to almost every one.  I also keep track of what everyone is asking for, particularly if it is requested by many different individuals.

With that in mind, I’m happy to say that AllergyEats has now answered your call once more with a new addition more noticeable than some others.

Currently, when you run a restaurant search and then click “Details and Comments” below a specific restaurant to learn more, you reach what we call the Results Details screen.  This is the screen that includes user comments in the bottom right.  Many of you were frustrated by the fact that you didn’t know which allergies the individuals making each comment had.  Since we designed the site to be “allergy agnostic” to a degree, evaluating restaurants based on how they deal with ANY unique dining need, I originally thought that it was best NOT to show the commenters allergies.  However, after using the site, many of you disagreed and you made convincing arguments.

So now, when you go to the Results Details screen and look at the comments, you will find 2-letter codes that indicate the commenters allergies.

For example, on one restaurant a commenter is listed as “betk26 – PN TN SY”.  That means betk26 has peanut, tree nut, and soy allergies.  The next is “Marcy – SF”, indicating a shellfish allergy.  But don’t worry about memorizing these codes.   To see which allergies/intolerances each code indicates, simply run your cursor over the code and a small box will appear with the full name of the allergy or intolerance it stands for.  Simple.

We are excited to bring you this new feature you requested.  We continually strive to make this site as valuable as possible for our entire community.  We have some other more significant new features that we’re working on which I can’t wait to share with you… but I’ll have to for the time being.

So please keep those comments, suggestions, and criticisms coming.  Use the feedback links on the left sidebar of the main page.  We’re listening.

And in the spirit of improving the site, please remember to rate any restaurants you’ve recently dined at (including those you visited during this not-long-enough Summer).  It’s as easy as 3 clicks and 1 minute at www.allergyeats.com.  How about now?