8 ms·

Square Acquires Food Delivery Service Caviar (YC S11)

79 points by kposehn 12y ago

usaphp 12y ago
I wonder is it just me or google search for "Caviar" returns their website at the first position, above the Wiki article for actual "caviar"?
- californian 12y ago
  For me, the Wiki article comes up first in both my logged in and incognito results.
  - jonathanjaeger 12y ago
    The trycaviar link comes up first for me.
- gtirloni 12y ago
  Incognito: http://i.imgur.com/yvmBMde.png http://i.imgur.com/yvmBMde.png
  - cnaut 12y ago
    Incognito can still capture your location which will affect the ranking: http://imgur.com/7O04wwl http://imgur.com/7O04wwl
    - dmix 12y ago
      2nd result on DDG: https://i.imgur.com/zAnFtDp.png https://i.imgur.com/zAnFtDp.png
- qq66 12y ago
  Is that unusual? Depending on the size of the business, more people could be looking for the company than for Wikipedia information on caviar.
  - untog 12y ago
    "Depending on the size of the business" is the key thing here. No way it's big enough. But in this case it's just Google's personalised results.
- arthurcolle 12y ago
  I believe that PageRank works off of an index of all webpages and ranking is primarily based on the number of links to a particular url. It seems likely that given the number of articles released in the last year about the fundraising efforts of the company, compared to the likely small number of webpages that need to link to the wiki page for caviar (lol), it gets ranked higher, accordingly. However, I suppose if I am to google caviar then maybe case sensitivity should be included in Google's rankings.
TheMakeA 12y ago
The difference is most other food-delivery services tap into an already built-in delivery infrastructure. Is this true? Seems like every modern food delivery company (DoorDash, et al) does this.
- jc4p 12y ago
  Seamless and GrubHub operate like that, they just bring an online interface (and easy management) to the store's pre-existing delivery employees.
  - avree 12y ago
    In some cases they connect 3rd-party delivery services with the store as well. AFAIK, Postmates and Caviar are the only two companies going with the two-party model, but employing their own delivery drivers/couriers.
    - calbear81 12y ago
      Doordash does too I believe.
      - cnaut 12y ago
        There are a lot of others like fluc and non bay-area ones like orderup, favor, WunWun, kanga
    - tootie 12y ago
      Hm, interesting. Hadn't heard of either of these. On the one hand, they're playing a huge uphill battle and would need to employ thousands of couriers if they want to serve just America's major cities. On the other hand, they could completely rewire the food delivery business. I'm not sure it can work. Restaurants can hire minimum wage or below family members or illegals to deliver as an essentially free service. They live off of tips. Caviar would have to charge a significant premium to stay in business.
      - 12y ago
jordo37 12y ago
Congrats to the Caviar team! My wife broke her leg two months ago and Caviar was a lifesaver to help us avoid the boredom and monotony of pizza and Chinese food every night.
free2rhyme214 12y ago
Amazing work Jason!
guyy321 12y ago
Awesome news for the Caviar team!
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
prezjordan 12y ago
I used Caviar the other night (just moved to SF - no idea where to eat) and it was fantastic. I left a good review and someone from the company wrote me a very personalized email thanking me. Pretty neat stuff - but that delivery fee is mighty expensive compared to something like Postmates. Excited to see what Square does with it.

79 points by kposehn 12y ago

I wonder is it just me or google search for "Caviar" returns their website at the first position, above the Wiki article for actual "caviar"?

californian 12y ago
For me, the Wiki article comes up first in both my logged in and incognito results.
- jonathanjaeger 12y ago
  The trycaviar link comes up first for me.
gtirloni 12y ago
Incognito: http://i.imgur.com/yvmBMde.png http://i.imgur.com/yvmBMde.png
- cnaut 12y ago
  Incognito can still capture your location which will affect the ranking: http://imgur.com/7O04wwl http://imgur.com/7O04wwl
  - dmix 12y ago
    2nd result on DDG: https://i.imgur.com/zAnFtDp.png https://i.imgur.com/zAnFtDp.png
qq66 12y ago
Is that unusual? Depending on the size of the business, more people could be looking for the company than for Wikipedia information on caviar.
- untog 12y ago
  "Depending on the size of the business" is the key thing here. No way it's big enough. But in this case it's just Google's personalised results.
arthurcolle 12y ago
I believe that PageRank works off of an index of all webpages and ranking is primarily based on the number of links to a particular url. It seems likely that given the number of articles released in the last year about the fundraising efforts of the company, compared to the likely small number of webpages that need to link to the wiki page for caviar (lol), it gets ranked higher, accordingly. However, I suppose if I am to google caviar then maybe case sensitivity should be included in Google's rankings.

TheMakeA 12y ago

The difference is most other food-delivery services tap into an already built-in delivery infrastructure. Is this true? Seems like every modern food delivery company (DoorDash, et al) does this.

jc4p 12y ago
Seamless and GrubHub operate like that, they just bring an online interface (and easy management) to the store's pre-existing delivery employees.
- avree 12y ago
  In some cases they connect 3rd-party delivery services with the store as well. AFAIK, Postmates and Caviar are the only two companies going with the two-party model, but employing their own delivery drivers/couriers.
  - calbear81 12y ago
    Doordash does too I believe.
    - cnaut 12y ago
      There are a lot of others like fluc and non bay-area ones like orderup, favor, WunWun, kanga
  - tootie 12y ago
    Hm, interesting. Hadn't heard of either of these. On the one hand, they're playing a huge uphill battle and would need to employ thousands of couriers if they want to serve just America's major cities. On the other hand, they could completely rewire the food delivery business. I'm not sure it can work. Restaurants can hire minimum wage or below family members or illegals to deliver as an essentially free service. They live off of tips. Caviar would have to charge a significant premium to stay in business.
    - 12y ago

jordo37 12y ago

Congrats to the Caviar team! My wife broke her leg two months ago and Caviar was a lifesaver to help us avoid the boredom and monotony of pizza and Chinese food every night.

free2rhyme214 12y ago

Amazing work Jason!

guyy321 12y ago

Awesome news for the Caviar team!

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

prezjordan 12y ago

I used Caviar the other night (just moved to SF - no idea where to eat) and it was fantastic. I left a good review and someone from the company wrote me a very personalized email thanking me. Pretty neat stuff - but that delivery fee is mighty expensive compared to something like Postmates. Excited to see what Square does with it.