DigitalBeat

Buzzd, a city guide that’s one of the top 10 most downloaded apps on the Blackberry, is launching an iPhone version today that pulls real-time updates from nearby restaurants and bars.

Buzzd chief executive Nihal Mehta says static reviews aren’t enough. How do you know if a restaurant’s overflowing now? Or if the fish is subpar tonight? Or if the music’s good? Buzzd users send status updates on venues called “buzzes” that the app collects so others know which places are packed or empty in the area.

One issue the company had to overcome was getting a critical mass of updates so that the service is useful. They try to get over this hump by scraping Twitter updates from other location-based services like Loopt, Foursquare and Geodelic and aggregating them.

Location-based services is “a small community. They’re all aware that we’re doing something like this,” Mehta said. “More than not, this is about distribution for [the services we're pulling data from]. They already do it by connecting their services to Twitter and see Buzzd as a partner, not a competitor.”

The New York-based company launched on Blackberry first because of its tight relationship with maker Research in Motion, which provided it funding through its BlackBerry Partners Fund.

“We had an opportunity to be more or less a really big fish in a small pond,” Mehta said.

Buzzd is going to work on a number of advertising models, from ones that deliver impressions to others that coordinate with local businesses to gives users deals. They could also earn revenue from affiliate deals as users buy movie or concert tickets through the app.

Buzzd raised a $3.8 million round in October, backed by Monitor Ventures, Greycroft Partners, Qualcomm Ventures and the BlackBerry Partners Fund, a venture capital fund focused on companies making applications for mobile phones.

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