I was recently invited to create a profile on a new website called OurTaste, which calls itself an “online preference aggregator.” I’ve never understood the word aggregator, but this site is worth visiting if you live around New York. It seems to be a mix of Friendster, Netflix, MenuPages, and Zagat, and I think it will be useful once people start signing up and rating restaurants and bars. I had fun building my profile.

Perhaps the site will eventually begin suggesting restaurants based on previous ratings, the way iTunes and Amazon do. I used to want MenuPages to tell me other places I might like (back when I used that horrible site), because in a city with so many restaurants, it can be overwhelming to think about where to go. I generally won’t go anywhere without a strong recommendation from a trusted source, because it’s so easy to get burned. I hope this site will get enough traffic that I can really use it to pick a restaurant someday.