OpenTable reveals Canadian data on dining out for the festive season

'Tis the season of festive gatherings with friends, family, and coworkers. But if securing a reservation at your restaurant of choice has become as coveted as the latest trending "it" gift, you may be interested in these recent findings. According to OpenTable consumer and dining review driven data here are some interesting findings. 

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Reservations get collaborative with OpenTable's bot for Facebook Messenger

OpenTable, the world’s leading provider of online restaurant reservations and part of the Priceline Group, is introducing a new way for diners to search and make restaurant reservations directly through Facebook Messenger.

With OpenTable’s bot for Messenger, diners around the globe can make reservations at more than 40,000 restaurants worldwide directly from within Messenger through the new Chat Extensions feature.

OpenTable’s bot for Messenger makes planning a meal with friends even easier by enabling diners to search and suggest available restaurants to friends as well as make reservations through the bot without leaving Messenger. It’s an easy, collaborative way to pick the perfect spot for a friend’s birthday dinner, a special occasion or an upcoming trip.  

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Priceline to buy OpenTable for $2.6 billion

Eminent online restaurant reservation service OpenTable is being bought by airline ticket reservation giant Priceline for a whopping US $2.6 biillion. Priceline, which leads the market for flight, hotel and car rental reservations will be able to add restaurant reservations to their menu of services.

I recently had the chance to visit OpenTable's San Francisco offices where I saw first hand the impressive breadth and scope of their operations for web a well as mobile app services. OpenTable's been around since the early days of the Internet as an online reservation service, they also have a massive database of user ratings and reviews spanning close to 15 years and they've branched out into guest management, table mangement and seating, POS integration as well as reports and even mobile payments. Staring local in San Francsico, OpenTable currently serves 5 million diners each month at 31,000 restaurants globally.

Stay tuned for a more comprehensive story on OpenTable as a developer. Priceline owns popular online reservation properties Booking.com, Kayak and RentalCars.com among others.

Source: New York Times

Gmail adds more quick action buttons

Google’s Gmail service has added more functionality to the email app with more quick-action buttons that appear beside the email subject line. Dropbox folder and Google Docs can be accessed through quick actions; Seamless users can rate and review restaurants by clicking the review button; YouTube and Vimeo videos can be opened through the view video button; and OpenTable lets you edit your dinner reservation through your inbox.