Yelp Takes the Internet Local and Fills a Demand

Maybe you've heard of Yelp. Maybe you haven't. I love the site and think it's going to be an internet hit within the next year or so.

So far Yelp has about 9 million users and the community is growing everyday. You can literally review everything in almost any US city from restaurants to real estate. It's one of the more useful web 2.0 sites out there.

Many web insiders have been saying target local search. Yelp listened and is reaping the rewards of doing so. There's a huge demand for information about local businesses. Though, not just any information is in demand people want to know where the best restaurants are in their neighborhood or what service can they trust when they need them (such as auto mechanics) Yelp takes this concept takes it out of the hands of the business owners, media and restaurant reviewers and puts it in the hands of the people.

Yelp is a good way to cut through a paid endorsements on a website, vague restaurant reviews or a TV news segment that might be a little wary about saying too many negative (or any) things about a business fearing they might be sued by the owner.

Yelper's tells it like it is. Though, some small business owners aren't as enthusiastic about the idea of Yelp. As one business owner comments on the Blog of Sarah Lacy's blog, Valley Girl,

As a small business owner I dread the idea of Yelp becoming a substitute for the suggestion box. The population of Yelp users seems to be party kids and have no right influencing anyone other than maybe themselves. Yelp is evil.

Is Yelp evil though? Are most of it's users party kids who taking out angst online at businesses or even people who work at these businesses they don't like?

Not really.

Though, there are issues about the legitimacy of ratings about a business based on personal taste (especially for restaurants), there's a wide spectrum of Yelper's. In general the site is pretty trustworthy and on target. There's also moderators that remove reviews that seem unnecessarily harsh. You can also get a sense of someone having a vendetta if a business has many reviews and gets high marks with (almost) everyone.

This is one of the interactive aspects I like about some web 2.0 companies such as Yelp. This site provides instant feedback for any offline business. Some restaurant's are even putting "Approved by Yelp" stickers on their windows similar to the "Zagats Rated" signs and stickers.

Could Yelp be a replacement for Zagats guidebooks for restaurateurs? We'll have to wait and see right now it's a great informative website that is gaining influence and authority. Yelp understands everyone truly is a critic.

And no I don't I'm not affiliated with Yelp nor do I work for them but I wish I did :)

More next time.