I have been asked to write a review about WhatsOpen.com.au. This is an unpaid review.

The idea
I think it’s an ingenious idea, and a simple one at that. I have sat around at home, wondering what was open at wee hours of the night. Particularly in regards to food (me love food) outlets. The website will let you know what is open in your area (as specified by you). The default time is set to “current”. You can even SMS a search term, and a response will contact the nearest venue, the distance, and the times it is open. Similarities are borne with WhatsOpen.com which is an American version, but you can sign up for the full beta to get international locations.

The website (design, features etc)
The venues are updated by the site administrators, and also by members of the public (which are approved by the site administrators). You can add venues here, and they will be updated as soon as possible by the administrators. The website has a very clean, neat and usable design. It gets to the point right away. Once you log on, you are faced with a search bar where you can type in any location in Australia. The great thing about the search feature is you can use vague addresses, or landmarks and the site picks it up. For example: I tried “Cnr Elizabeth Flinders Melbourne”. I was looking for Pepperoni’s Pizza (reviewed here), but it wasn’t listed. I promptly added it as one of the venues and it was promptly accepted by the administrators. It’s that simple!

The site has a Web 2.0 appearance, the blue makes it easy on the eyes. The simplicity of the site is what I like, because you don’t need to spend too much time on it to find out what it’s really about. The maps and distance feature is also a very smart way to localize the information.

The confusing part
I typed in “Racecourse Road”, and for the first 22 pages (and then I gave up), it brought up all the businesses in Victoria. That’s great for me because I am based in Victoria. What about Racecourse Road’s elsewhere in Australia. Therein lies a small gap in the system. As the site grows, you would expect it to be smarter by picking up which State you are from. So I chose: “NSW” as the preferred state, and it promptly brought up all the businesses that are open currently in NSW, but when I typed in Racecourse Rd it defaulted back to Victoria.

The advertising part
The site does not make it clear how advertising makes a difference to what you find in your search results. I do notice in their about page they offer paid advertising programs, so whether it’s already implemented in the question. A bit more information will be useful. There in lies an opportunity to Googlise the search to display “sponsored results” and make money from it.

Suggestions
Some of these suggestions I am sure the brilliant minds at WhatsOpen are already on to, but here goes:
* You have great database of information, so you need to get more people into it. A simple and effective way is to allow people to become members.
* Once there are members, allow them to interact with the site by allow them to rate the businesses, and comment on them.
* Once there are members, you can incorporate a social networking component to it - recommendations from friends is more valued than me finding a business through random search.
* When you search for a generic term, allow the results to be displayed according to state. This means, in the results page - split into the various states and allow the user to click on which state they would like (or better yet - default the state by detecting where the viewer is located)
* If you want to be real smart, then allow users (like me) set default locations (i.e.: during membership I provide my address/postcode and this becomes my default location). Generally, we would to find out WhatsOpen near our homes first, then everywhere else.

The cost
This is the best bit, it is free to use by the public. I am not sure how they are sustaining the service, and the company does not openly disclose if they receive advertising money from the businesses they list. None the less, its free for the public which is the most important aspect (and the one that matters) of the site.

Rating - 8/10 (ingenious concept, really looking forward to your development)
These guys are onto something special. It’s such a simple concept, and I am not sure why Yellow Pages or White Pages didn’t think of it. It’s a neat, simple, unique, and ingenious idea and with further development will go a real long way. Excellent work, certainly a site I will be using again. (Never mind the 8/10, it’s only because there are plenty more features you can add on, and I’m being harsh to motivate you guys!).

I’m in Sydney as I write this, and have a few more reviews up my sleeve. Just attended a pretty full on conference for 3 days, and I’m in information overload.