Snooth jumps on apps bandwagon

One of the largest wine ratings websites has launched its own app to cash in on the increasing customer dependence on the programmes to make wine selections.

Snooth’s Wine Pro app will link the 11,000 retailers on its retail network with consumers who contribute to the 2.2 million reviews on its website.

Once the label has been scanned, Snooth confirms that consumers will be able to see which nearby stores have that particular wine in stock as well as compare prices and view maps to nearby stores.

Those who download the app, which costs US$4.99, can add the wine to a wishlist or virtual cellar, purchase the wine online through its global retail network, post a review or read reviews posted by others and finally, browse for similar wines by winery, region or varietal.

Powered by TinEye, a reverse-image search engine, the app uses specialised digital image fingerprinting to find image matches.

Speaking of the launch, Snooth’s engagement manager, Jesse Chemtob said: “Since most wine labels are on a curved surface, it can also find images that are slightly rotated, warped, cropped, blurred, have skewed colours, or those that are taken in poorly lit areas.”

There’s also an option for iPhone wine consumers to download a free but pared down (ad supported) version of the app, while Snooth comments that Android and BlackBerry users may be rewarded with their own version of the app soon.

She added: “Pending adoption, engagement, and user support we’d love to roll out to other devices and platforms in the near future.”

Snooth posts 2.2m reviews and 1.2m wines on its site, making it the world’s largest wine database, while 820,000 wines are searchable by image recognition technology.

Jane Parkinson, 27.09.2010