Oink shutting the gate on March 31st

In November, I posted an article on a couple of food related smartphone apps and services, Nosh and Oink, asking which of the two was the best service. I saw today that Oink is shutting down so it seems that Nosh is the one to use now. Also Nosh now has an Android app so many more can use it on their phones.

Oink was started by Kevin Rose's Milk Inc. company and seemed to start off with quite a following. The note up on the Oink site reads:

Howdy,

We started Milk Inc. (the company behind Oink) to rapidly build and test out new ideas. Oink was our first test and, in preparing to move onto the next project, we've decided to shut it down to help focus our efforts.

Thank you so much to everyone who joined and contributed to Oink. You have been the heart of Oink. We are extremely grateful for all of your effort finding and rating the best things in the places around you. We've discovered thousands of awesome pizzas, pastas, coffees, teas... and roller coasters, zoo exhibits, paintings, sculptures, vistas... and sodas, salads, sliders, soups... and so much more.

So long and thanks for all the Oinks! More news from us soon,

The Milk Team

It doesn't state that they shut down due to lack of users or enthusiasm for the service so you have to wonder if it was just to gather data or was the original intent simply to run it for a few months to test out the foodie market. I imagine it will make people think twice before jumping on Milk Inc. apps though since there were likely some Oink enthusiasts who put a lot of time and effort into providing Oinks and many who probably came to rely on it for making informed choices.

You can visit the site and download all of your ratings and pictures, but that seems a bit pointless with no application or service to use it with.