Goodrec, a social-networking product/services review site, has launched to the public.

From this TechCrunch article:

Goodrec, a recommendation site that was first introduced at TechCrunch50, has launched its online review hub to the public alongside a new iPhone application. The site differentiates itself from other similar sites by keeping reviews short and sweet - users can rate an item as either ‘Thumbs Up’, ‘Mixed Bag’, or ‘Thumbs Down’, and can include only 160 characters of text. The site also covers a very broad range of items, which include restaurants, music, nightlife hotspots, or anything else users submit. You can find the main site at Goodrec.com, and can grab the free iPhone application here.

Personally, after seeing the mess that the iTunes App Store has become, I'm growing less interested with mass, knee-jerk reviews by the general populous. And while Apple finally took measures (too late) restricting reviews to purchasers of the software, Goodrec has no viable way of doing the same.

Still, this may be worth checking out. It looks like this is more friends-based than something like the iPhone store, so while my friends' tastes in film are nowhere near as good as mine (*cough*), at least I know the reviews will be well-thought-out.

Plus, I like the idea of a "thumbs up/down" system. All I want to know is whether a person would or would not recommend something. I know that sounds hypocritical given that we rate films based on a 10-scale, but we're taking a lot more time to analyze a film we're reviewing, and the concept of how much we liked or disliked a movie becomes relevant. When looking for an overall consensus of reviews by a large number of people, a simple "yes" or "no" is perfect.

Looks like this is basically Twitter + Facebook + Reviews, specifically for restaurants, bars, wine, movies, and books. Not bad. I'll let you know what I think in a week or two.