Are you sick of recommendations from people who don’t know you and don’t seem to suggest anything that suits you? So is LOCALFAVE. Today, they announced their official launch at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. The utility of the sites services comes from the fact that all their recommendations will come from friends who live in close proximity to you. The greatest thing about them are they’re discrete, the recommendations don’t tell you the exact date and time of the review.

Vishal K. Gupta, CEO of localfave commented on the service:

“Location-based services are so helpful, but the average user may not want to explicitly share their location as many services require,”

“At localfave, our goal is to provide a vehicle for our users to rank and categorize the places they’ve been in the past and to share their experiences easily with friends. That’s localfave. It’s a location based service for everyone.”

Probably the worst thing about a recommendation from a friend is that they expect you to like what they recommended. Unfortunately that’s not always the case. Not everybody has the same basis for comparison or gets as easily excited about new businesses.

Pat McCreary, CTO of localfave comments on this phenomenon:

“We’ve noticed that it is harder and harder to discover truly great venues. One person’s 5-star review, is another person’s 3-star. This is the reason we created the idea of a ‘fave’. Ultimately, knowing that your friend’s favorite sushi joint is around the corner is much more important than knowing that it has averaged 3.5 stars.”

Their ‘fave’ button is a way to keep things in perspective, you know how some people are, everything you mention is their “favorite’. They’re just very excitable people. Localfave challenges them with the ‘fave’ button. Once you mark something as a ‘fave’ you can’t feature anything else as a ‘have’ in the same category. After all, there is only one favorite, that’s what the word means. I can appreciate this option from Localfave.

Sounds like a well needed service if you ask me. I look forward to getting some recommendations from their site. Has potential to be more than just another review site. I like the features they are showcasing and I can’t wait to see what it looks like when it comes to my computer.