0 Hotpot Jackpot Portland: Two Days Left to Rate

By Unknown | At 18.13 | Label : hotpot jackpot , portland | 0 Comments

Last December, when we launched our first local marketing campaign for Google Places in Portland, Oregon, we also kicked off Hotpot Jackpot Portland, a contest to reward our top raters in the area. The grand prize? A gourmet dinner for 10 at any restaurant in Portland. And you guys wasted no time rating your favorite spots, sharing with friends, and penning great Best Ever nominations.

Still really want that prize? You�ve got two days left to register and rate on Hotpot! We�re closing it down Thursday at midnight and announcing the winners around February 24.

Here�s the full prize breakdown again:

• 5 Grand Prizes � Dinner for up to 10 people at any restaurant in Portland
• 25 First Prizes � Dinner for up to 4 people at any restaurant in Portland
• 100 Second Prizes - $100 Hotpot Jackpot�branded debit cards to use at local Portland businesses

Still need more motivation than that? I bet photos of yummy food will do the trick.

We recently wrapped up Hotpot Jackpot San Francisco, and our winners are starting to hit up their favorite Bay Area restaurants. Hotpotter Monica sent us a couple photos from her group�s night out at Morimoto Napa:

Foie gras chawan mushi

Toro tartare

Now get out there and rate!

Posted by Vanessa Schneider, Hotpot Team

0 Introducing the Winners of Hotpot Jackpot San Francisco

By Unknown | At 09.29 | Label : hotpot jackpot , san francisco | 0 Comments

After watching a tight rating race unfold in San Francisco these past couple months, we�re excited to finally announce the winners of the Hotpot Jackpot - San Francisco contest. The contest, as you know, was aimed at rewarding the most active Hotpot users who attended our first L3 Location, Location, Location meetup back in November. The top three Grand Prizes include a gourmet dinner for 10 at top-notch Bay Area restaurants Chez Panisse, Gary Danko and The French Laundry.

And the winners are (drumroll, please) ...

• Amy Lee
• Curtis Tongue
• Caitlin Compo

Go Amy, Curtis and Caitlin! Look for photos from their evenings out � and, of course, how they rated the place � in the coming weeks on the Hotpot Blog and our Twitter and Facebook channels.

And now on to our First Prize winners, who each receive a dinner for up to 10 people at the Bay Area restaurant of their choice:

• Linda Tong
• Lori Nguyen
• Jen Leen
• Rachel White
• Julie Wilner
• Vijay Vachani
• Jessica Hazlett
• Caroline Savello
• Monica Lo
• Emma Wondergem

Our 50 Second Prize winners will receive a Hotpot-branded Timbuk2 bag:

Congratulations to all our winners! And a special thanks to everyone who participated in our first Hotpot Jackpot contest. We hope we�ve gotten you hooked on rating and finding great places on Google with the help of your friends. 

Posted by Vanessa Schneider, Hotpot Team

0 Hotpot Jackpot: Vote For Your Favorite Portland Non-Profit

By Unknown | At 17.06 | Label : hotpot jackpot , portland | 0 Comments

We recently launched our second Hotpot Jackpot competition to encourage Portlanders to start rating the places they know and share them with friends. The top five raters at the end of the competition will win dinner for 10 at any restaurant in Portland, Oregon, courtesy of Google. We kicked off the contest in style at the Rose Garden last week, and users have been bringing their A-Game ever since.

Today we�d like to announce another piece of the contest. For every person who enters Hotpot Jackpot Portland, Google will donate $1 to a Portland non-profit. The non-profit will be decided by you, our users, by voting below. Voting will close January 20, 2010, and both the winning non-profit and top users will be announced on or around January 27. So get voting and start rating!


Posted by Vanessa Schneider, Hotpot Team

0 Hotpot Jackpot Update

By Unknown | At 08.46 | Label : hotpot jackpot | 0 Comments

Last month at our first L3 Location, Location, Location meetup in the San Francisco Ferry Building, we kicked off Hotpot Jackpot, a contest to reward the most active Hotpot users who attended the event. The competition�s been pretty heated since that night. One especially determined user invited almost 300 of her friends to join her on Hotpot � so not only does she have a better shot at winning, but now she and her friends will see better Google search results as they rate the places they�ve been and share recommendations with one another.

In the spirit of a little friendly competition, we wanted to give you an update on how things are shaking out with the contest. Just to recap, the rules are pretty simple: Rate the places you know using Hotpot, share your ratings with friends, and win sweet prizes, including dinner for 10 at top-notch Bay Area restaurants such as Chez Panisse, Gary Danko and The French Laundry.

Much to our excitement, you guys hopped right to it. Let�s take a moment to give kudos to some of our leading contenders, listed by their Hotpot nicknames:

• Curtis
• Amy Lee
• Caroline
• thegrubster
• LT
• Vijay
• Caitlin
• mlo
• Jen
• Daniel Levine

Congrats for setting the bar high, guys! Bravo.

If you don�t see your nickname on that list, just remember: This is a list of some of our top contenders as of today, there�s still plenty of time for you to step up your rating game and reach the top (we�ll be announcing the winners around January 11). So get out there and rate! Trust us, you and your friends do not want to miss out on that cheese course at Gary Danko.

Posted by Vanessa Schneider, Hotpot Team