Site presents eateries' health inspection record on Google Maps
SEATTLE -- There are thousands of restaurants in and around Seattle, but when deciding between Italian and Indian, how do you also choose between clean... or crummy?
Stephen Becker has some answers.
"Somebody said, 'Why hasn't anybody put health inspections on Google Maps yet?' And I said, 'I'll do that!'" said Becker, who lives in Ballard. "Everybody knows that places get inspected, but they didn't know how to find the data."
Becker, a web developer for a company in Pioneer Square, says he was walking back from lunch with friends one day and passed a kitchen where he could see inside. That got the group to thinking: why isn't it easier to find restaurant inspection information?
Enter: Dinegerous.com, which takes King County restaurant inspections and marries them to Google Maps.
"That'd be helpful," said tourist Mark Duffy of the idea, as he was taking a coffee break in Pioneer Square Monday morning. "I went into an Indian restaurant in New York and I found a matchbook in my food. Took it out of my food and left. I didn't finish it."
"In New York City they give letter grades for restaurants, so I'm very conscious of (cleanliness) at that point," he added.
Becker says the Dinegerous website took four days to build, has been around for about a month, and is already changing habits in the kitchens of King County.
"If (restaurants) know that people are watching this and people are doing it, I think they'll keep an eye on those values and just make the experience better," he said.
"I think it's a good thing, definitely," said Brittney Cline of Seattle, who admitted she'd never looked up a restaurant's health inspection online. "There was (once) a band-aid in (my sister's) chimichanga, so that wasn't good," she said, laughing as she recalled a dirty dining experience.
Becker, who has a full-time job in Web development, is working on Dinegerous on the side.
He has a Twitter account for it, and eventually he hopes to build an app for the smart phone.
He also admits that building the site has even changed his own eating habits.
"My favorite lunch place is the worst rated that's still open in Seattle. I no longer go there, unfortunately," he said, laughing.
Stephen Becker has some answers.
"Somebody said, 'Why hasn't anybody put health inspections on Google Maps yet?' And I said, 'I'll do that!'" said Becker, who lives in Ballard. "Everybody knows that places get inspected, but they didn't know how to find the data."
Becker, a web developer for a company in Pioneer Square, says he was walking back from lunch with friends one day and passed a kitchen where he could see inside. That got the group to thinking: why isn't it easier to find restaurant inspection information?
Enter: Dinegerous.com, which takes King County restaurant inspections and marries them to Google Maps.
"That'd be helpful," said tourist Mark Duffy of the idea, as he was taking a coffee break in Pioneer Square Monday morning. "I went into an Indian restaurant in New York and I found a matchbook in my food. Took it out of my food and left. I didn't finish it."
"In New York City they give letter grades for restaurants, so I'm very conscious of (cleanliness) at that point," he added.
Becker says the Dinegerous website took four days to build, has been around for about a month, and is already changing habits in the kitchens of King County.
"If (restaurants) know that people are watching this and people are doing it, I think they'll keep an eye on those values and just make the experience better," he said.
"I think it's a good thing, definitely," said Brittney Cline of Seattle, who admitted she'd never looked up a restaurant's health inspection online. "There was (once) a band-aid in (my sister's) chimichanga, so that wasn't good," she said, laughing as she recalled a dirty dining experience.
Becker, who has a full-time job in Web development, is working on Dinegerous on the side.
He has a Twitter account for it, and eventually he hopes to build an app for the smart phone.
He also admits that building the site has even changed his own eating habits.
"My favorite lunch place is the worst rated that's still open in Seattle. I no longer go there, unfortunately," he said, laughing.
