I launched my nationwide pool hall finder today

Dan White said:
OP wants accolades not real discussion from people who care. How difficult is it to Google a pool hall then call them to make sure they're open and not hosting a big league or something at the moment?
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Google is not perfect in other ways besides showing closed rooms. If an app had really accurate data, it would be useful to those who both travel and like to play. I imagine that is not a large enough market to financially support the effort required.

The problem with calling the room is that all too often you get an answer like, "I don't know about that. Jack comes in after dinner. Call then." But that does tell you not to go out of your way to visit.

I'm not sure what app features are needed (see above) but the following kinds of info would be good (and are in some of the current apps):

location
website
phone
hours
number, brand, and size of each kind of table
remarks on table condition
tournaments
leagues
foot, beverage
age restrictions
cost
 
i read on findsnooker.com that a certain pool room had a snooker table, so i called them to check and asked if they had one and the guy on the phone said,

“Yes a snooker table you want to buy it? How much?”

I said, “No I want to play snooker, do you have a snooker table?”

“No more we have pool.”

and so it goes

also, the app ChalkySticks
has a find a pool room in your area feature
called Places and another called Beacons for letting everyone know you are there

wishing you all the success ✌🏼(peace sign)
 
nataddrho said:
Your website is a stage 1 prototype, proof of concept. This is a great start but you must realize that it takes a lot of revisions and a lot of work to build a product people really want to use. It is very hard.

I would prefer that this product be a mobile app instead of a website, and that it had the intelligence to automatically ask you if a pool hall is open when you arrive there, the way Maps and Waze ask you if a car is still pulled over or if an accident slowdown is still pending. It should also launch your GPS so that you can drive there in one click.

The search algorithm should be much more sophisticated than what has already been done, allowing people to search for the closest snooker tables, tournaments that week, current leagues, etc. it can be crowd maintained rather than by a single admin.

The app may not have enough users to allow for a subscription model, but people will pay a few bucks once for a niche app that works well. Your competitor is free Google which really means have to load up on features in order to make any money, or to even get users involved.
Click to expand...
If you build it, they will come.
 
Bob Jewett said:
Google is not perfect in other ways besides showing closed rooms. If an app had really accurate data, it would be useful to those who both travel and like to play. I imagine that is not a large enough market to financially support the effort required.

The problem with calling the room is that all too often you get an answer like, "I don't know about that. Jack comes in after dinner. Call then." But that does tell you not to go out of your way to visit.

I'm not sure what app features are needed (see above) but the following kinds of info would be good (and are in some of the current apps):

location
website
phone
hours
number, brand, and size of each kind of table
remarks on table condition
tournaments
leagues
foot, beverage
age restrictions
cost
Click to expand...
Bob, you told me you are retired. I think you should build a site, exactly as you want it. We will all benefit. Plus, it will give you something to do, other than comment on how everything out there is better than what I've spent my time doing........lol
 
Love the website! Thank you for making it. I'm going to share it on Facebook. This could come in handy for quite a few folks, a bigger audience too. :)
 
markjames said:
and now it is up to date🫡
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Yes, the guy who runs the findsnooker.com site mentioned in the snooker forum that he finally got around to adding about a year of accumulated email. It seems he is also adding a mobile app. He started the site 16 years ago and it was still on the same PC.
 
Cornerman said:
Well… I have 10 pool halls full of 9’ tables within 20 miles from me, with Family Billiards in Clearwater about a mile from my house. An 11th is moving in.

I applaud your energy into this, but count me in the camp that questions the need. The first pool hall finder that I remember was Playpool.com from Ed Mercier. That was around 25 years ago. Google wasn’t as well known as the time.

I suppose I’ll input all of these pool halls into your site to help you out in your endeavor, but I’ll have to Google the addresses first.
Click to expand...

In case anyone cares…

The 11th pool hall above will open up im a couple weeks. All 9’ Diamond tables. As an update, I’ll add that there is a new bar as part of the Stix Billiards local franchise that opened up at Clearwater Beach (5 miles from me) with eleven (11) 7’ Valley tables. It will be very interesting if that will bring league players to that location. I would think the beach prices would keep the dive bar player away.


www.facebook.com

5.2K views · 21 reactions | 📢😃We are so excited to be open! 🎱Stix Billiards on Clearwater Beach located at 483 Mandalay Ave., in the Pelican Walk Plaza. You will find us on the second floor, next to the new Clearwater Beach Arcade. Come enjoy a few

📢😃We are so excited to be open! 🎱Stix Billiards on Clearwater Beach located at 483 Mandalay Ave., in the Pelican Walk Plaza. You will find us on the second floor, next to the new Clearwater Beach...
www.facebook.com www.facebook.com

Freddie <~~~ spoilt
 
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Wouldn’t this entire model work better if there was some incentive for pool halls to self register and keep up to date information? Maybe we should be thinking of a new conceptual platform to do this, rather than rehash the same type of thing that has been tried for decades already.
 
nataddrho said:
Wouldn’t this entire model work better if there was some incentive for pool halls to self register and keep up to date information? Maybe we should be thinking of a new conceptual platform to do this, rather than rehash the same type of thing that has been tried for decades already.
Click to expand...
If you don't have a financially viable model, you need an energetic fanatic. If the site can make a reasonable amount of money for the work involved, it has a chance to survive beyond the interest of the founder. If not, it will die when that interest dies.

As for incentivizing whoever provides the info, that's a large problem. The OP's current strategy is to depend on the kindness of players.

In other news, the OP has moved his site to a new name:

Top-Rated Pool Halls Across America | AmazingPoolHalls.com

Looking for the best pool halls in the U.S.? AmazingPoolHalls.com helps you discover top-rated billiard venues near you with reviews, maps, and more. Go Amazing
amazingpoolhalls.com amazingpoolhalls.com

In even other related news, the PanAmerican Billiard and Snooker Association is also keeping a list of snooker rooms which I believe started from findsnooker.com:

United States of America - PABSA

[vc_row][vc_column width="1/6"][/vc_column][vc_column width="2/3" el_class="design-box"][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width="1/3"][vc_single_image image="4859" img_size="full"][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width="2/3"][vc_column_text]National Association - United States Snooker Association...
pabsa.org pabsa.org
 
Bob Jewett said:
If you don't have a financially viable model, you need an energetic fanatic. If the site can make a reasonable amount of money for the work involved, it has a chance to survive beyond the interest of the founder. If not, it will die when that interest dies.

As for incentivizing whoever provides the info, that's a large problem. The OP's current strategy is to depend on the kindness of players.

In other news, the OP has moved his site to a new name:

Top-Rated Pool Halls Across America | AmazingPoolHalls.com

Looking for the best pool halls in the U.S.? AmazingPoolHalls.com helps you discover top-rated billiard venues near you with reviews, maps, and more. Go Amazing
amazingpoolhalls.com amazingpoolhalls.com

In even other related news, the PanAmerican Billiard and Snooker Association is also keeping a list of snooker rooms which I believe started from findsnooker.com:

United States of America - PABSA

[vc_row][vc_column width="1/6"][/vc_column][vc_column width="2/3" el_class="design-box"][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width="1/3"][vc_single_image image="4859" img_size="full"][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width="2/3"][vc_column_text]National Association - United States Snooker Association...
pabsa.org pabsa.org
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I think the pool hall locator is just a hook to draw people to the website where he sell streaming and other website services.
 
Dan White said:
I think the pool hall locator is just a hook to draw people to the website where he sell streaming and other website services.
Click to expand...
If he improves his coverage to where the info is actually useful, I don't see a problem with that. I wish more pool rooms had websites. Of course, they need to be maintained, with hours, special events, tournaments, league standings, ... That's where the real work is with a website.
 
Bob Jewett said:
If he improves his coverage to where the info is actually useful, I don't see a problem with that. I wish more pool rooms had websites. Of course, they need to be maintained, with hours, special events, tournaments, league standings, ... That's where the real work is with a website.
Click to expand...
I think a lot of pool hall businesses now do all their "websites" on Facebook.
 
Bob Jewett said:
Yes, and that's not a good tool for the job, except for the fact that nearly all their customers swim in that cesspool.
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In total, I think it's better on FB. When it's on a proper website, everything is 10 years old because the room owner has no idea how to update the website himself, and/or the webmaster he hired is long gone. With FB, any 5 year old can update and post relevant events, pictures, etc.
 
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