Comments on: Yelp Reviews Back in Google Maps as their .COM Growth Stops

By: Google Places Gains New Ally in Review Battle with Yelp | Understanding Google Maps & Local Search

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 14:39:14 +0000

[...] with Yelp for quite some time. Google introduced reviews to local in 2007 and the fun began. Yelp reviews in Google, Yelp reviews out of Google, Yelp’s anger at Google’s use of their content, [...]

By: Steve

Steve — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 22:37:49 +0000

panzermike, you are correct and this is a good plan for any company to guide their happy customers to sites that offer reviews. Sites like Yelp, MerchantCircle and ofcourse Google Maps promote the good and bad reviews so guiding your happy clients to where they can provide reviews is a good strategy.

By: panzermike

panzermike — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 14:29:48 +0000

@Juliemarg And that is my main problem with Yelp! and it is not just them. There are a lot of really negative and unfair reviews out there. It’s almost like you have to tell your “happy” clients to go to Yelp! just to try and rehabilitate you.

By: Loving Online Business Reviews: It's The Future

Loving Online Business Reviews: It's The Future — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:42:39 +0000

[...] can write a review Yelp, and it will be read by people visiting that site, and also on Google Maps (Yelp’s syndicating again).Some people might access this review while they’re on the go, but only around 30% of the [...]

By: PureSheer

PureSheer — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 08:05:54 +0000

Yelp Partners with Facebook-

- http://officialblog.yelp.com/2010/04/here-at-yelp-were-always-excited-to-announce-feature-and-site-improvements-with-the-help-of-great-partners-today-weve-been.html?bw_s=P&bw_r=YePrdKQ7zk1b_nXJiag9tQ

By: Juliemarg

Juliemarg — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 03:31:31 +0000

I think yelp is too personality driven to reach full mainstream status – Their most active users are hipsters – and part of the appeal is the validation they get for being sarcastic and snarky.

If you’re ever in South Lake Tahoe, I can strongly recommend the Lakeside Grill as a great place for a burger and microbrew. Directly on the sand with a fantastic view of the lake, the food’s good. But if you look them up on yelp, the sandwich was the “worst sandwiches I’ve ever had” That’s from someone who gives 1/3 of the places he reviews a 1 star. Because of the meanie vibe on yelp he’s received over 300 compliments from his fellow yelpees.

By: Mike Blumenthal

Mike Blumenthal — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 01:33:15 +0000

@EarlPearl
It is small, it is active and it is engaged. I agree that it has created a dynamic way for generating some great content.

But it has been growing and now it doesn’t appear to be doing so anymore. This growth is critical for their future. They have not gone public nor sold out. Either, to be successful, require growth as an indicator of future success.

Compared to the options open to Google to get more pages views for Places, their options seem more limited. The possibility of syndicating their review content is one option but they run the risk of dissipating their community.

From where I sit, their long term success will be defined by if and how the restart their user growth.

@David Mihm
Ceiling is perhaps not the word that I was looking for…plateau was perhaps more to the point. But time will tell whether the current leaders of Google Maps and Yelp will continue to increase their presence.

At the moment, FB, Twitter are hardly in local so I wasn’t counting them. And their growth might come at the expense of GMaps and Yelp not be in addition to it thus not not lead an increase in total market.

I do think that local in some form has long growth ahead of it, I am just saying that on the desktop at least, after 24 months of steady growth, there has been a fairly long period (>6 months) of no growth in Yelp (and other major players) and that mobile has yet to step into the breach. What it will take to once again kick off a period of sustained growth is unclear.

As to why this is, I am not sure. I am sure though that both Yelp and Gmaps are spending some time thinking about it. Yelp though will be under more pressure that Google in this regard.

Do I think that local mobile will ultimately take the helm…absolutely. But for now its contribution to Yelp is minimal and their game is up for grabs in mobile and their traffic on the web is static or in slight decline. It is a time of high risk for them.

Regardless, the flattening of traffic is worthy of note even if it does or doesn’t portend the future.

By: David Mihm

David Mihm — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 01:12:08 +0000

Also Yelp has indicated at a conference (Kelsey? Searchfest? SMX West?) that they do not want users leaving mobile reviews…that they are looking for high-quality, well thought out remarks, not 140 character burps…to paraphrase.

By: David Mihm

David Mihm — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 01:10:40 +0000

“It appears to me that the whole local ecosystem accessed on the desktop has hit a ceiling on uniques.”

Mike, this might be the first non-political thing you’ve said that I’ve disagreed with.

1) Broadband is nowhere close to everywhere in this country yet…
2) Only what, 10% of business owners have claimed a Place Page–at the very least there’s an upside of 16MM people–
3) Facebook has not yet entered the Local game in earnest

There are a whole number of reasons to still be bullish on desktop local search in my view.

By: earlpearl

earlpearl — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 22:31:51 +0000

I suspect that within the larger universe of all web users, there is a distinctly smaller subset that reflects active reviewers. Of that subset though there are fascinating stories about the community that Yelp has created. So its a small, but highly active community. Meanwhile, sites such as 4square penetrate this market and may impact Yelp’s growth rate.

Yelp faces a business challenge as do all businesses/websites. To date though its created a dynamic model