Lunch.com Opens to Public With Fresh Take on Filtering Relevant Info

Lunch Adds Connection to Facebook to Allow Seamless Sharing of Reviews


EL SEGUNDO, CA--(Marketwire - May 14, 2009) - Lunch.com, a new online community based on the premise that the most useful information comes from people who share your interests, tastes and point of view, announces the public beta launch of its service (www.Lunch.com). Lunch connects people based on commonalities in their tastes and opinions using its proprietary Similarity Network engine. The service focuses on member-created reviews on almost any imaginable topic. People can give feedback to reviews and other content on the site through comments and ratings. The more people rate and review, the better Lunch can refine their Similarity Networks and improve the quality and relevance of information they receive. This way, Lunch lets people filter out the noise and zero in on what's most interesting and helpful to them personally.

Lunch now allows people to share their reviews directly on Facebook with Facebook Connect. This new feature allows members to post reviews directly onto their Facebook wall and news feed, letting people distribute their content to their extended social community and attracting more people to interact with their reviews on Lunch. The feature also allows people to join Lunch using their Facebook username and profile, which makes rating, reviewing, and refining their Similarity Networks a seamless experience.

"The Lunch community has tripled in size over the past four weeks and we are excited that our members can easily share their contributions on Lunch with their friends and family," said J.R. Johnson (http://www.lunch.com/jrjohnson), founder and chief executive officer of Lunch. "We believe Lunch is taking social media to the next level by providing richer content and an intelligent way to filter."

Lunch goes beyond reviews and personal opinions by empowering members to contribute factual information in the wiki portion of the site. Lunch is the first site to feature both facts and opinions side-by-side, pioneering a new breed of holistic content. On this new canvas, members can rate, review, tag, discuss and describe almost any topic. Among the thousands of data points that have been reviewed are consumer electronics, yoga styles, athletes, fashion, baby strollers, and YouTube videos.

--  Consumer Electronics: Kindle 2 http://lunch.com/t/7wl
--  Yoga Styles: Bikram Yoga http://lunch.com/t/8ig
--  Athletes: Manny Ramirez http://lunch.com/t/936
--  Fashion: Michelle Obama's Fashion http://lunch.com/t/8if
--  Baby Strollers: http://www.lunch.com/tags/Stroller-1003108-1-1.html
--  YouTube Videos: http://www.lunch.com/tags/Online_Videos-1000033-1-1.html
    

Best Practices in Community Building

J.R. Johnson founded Lunch in the summer of 2008 after he sold his previous companies VirtualTourist.com (user-generated travel review site) and OneTime.com to Expedia. He grew VirtualTourist.com to a high-quality community of 5 million unique visitors each month and 1 million members, and is applying those best practices in community building to Lunch. The Lunch team brings more than 10 years of online community-building experience to this new site, and knows how to best encourage people to contribute thoughtful reviews and information.

Lunch fosters a community of people who appreciate good conversation and respectful dialogue, and have a passion for understanding more in life. By creating an environment of critical thinking balanced with encouragement to engage, Lunch lays the groundwork for trust and loyalty among its members. Community members help each other become more skilled and confident as they express their knowledge, beliefs and ideas to others. This respectful discourse draws out a virtual ocean of untapped passion and information.

Lunch is self-funded by Johnson and board member Kenneth Sorosky and headquartered in El Segundo, Calif.

To sign up for an account, simply go to http://www.lunch.com.

Contact Information: Contacts Edelman for Lunch.com Travis Murdock 650-762-2807 travis.murdock@edelman.com