Google Pulls the Plug on Hotpot as a Standalone App

Google launched Hotpot about 5 months ago, integrating it into Google Places and in February, the service went global. Now, however, Google's pulling the plug on Hotpot itself, getting rid of it as an individual entity, but still tying it in with Google Places. When you go to a search results mobile page on Places, you will find Hotpot ratings and recommendations, however, these are buried and users will have to do a lot of scrolling to find them.

You'll only find Hotpot in Places now

Hotpot product manager, Lior Ron says that Hotpot is being used by more than one million users who are rating more than one million places a month. Integrating Hotpot into Places helps simplify the connection between places that are rated and reviewed, and the other 50 million-plus places that have an online presence on Google Places.

Google presents this restructuring as the graduation of Hotpot. The service was meant to provide a method of rating and reviewing places as well as getting recommendations from friends. The integration with Places has proven successful for Google, but they still need to make Hotpot a little more prominent on their Places pages.