SFist: We Get By With a Little Yelp From Our Friends

TinMan

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 23:49:46 -0800

Yelp is an online community and online communities scale very, very poorly. The more popular Yelp becomes, the less useful it ends up. Go ahead, read some user-submitted Amazon.com book reviews. These used to be great, circa 1997. Today, not so much. Whether or not Yelp has crossed the helpful/not helpful threshold is in the eye of the beholder. Frankly, I stick with the personal recommendations of friends with trustworthy palates.

Leanne

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 20:42:37 -0800

Yes, the "hip and quirky," completely subjective, TMI sorts of reviews are definitely the most annoying aspect of Yelp. I've read more than a few that have made me shudder in embarrassment. But luckily they're also very easy to weed through and roll one's eyes at. If a business is popular enough to have more than a few reviews, I feel like I can always find a common thread or two--good and bad, in the case of Cafe Gratitude...

J

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 20:31:03 -0800

Strike that ... I meant credibility ranking of the members themselves. Just verifying an identity is more credible than a totally unknown.

J

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 20:29:05 -0800

Maybe Yelp needs to develop some sort of credibility ranking of the members' reviews so that you can hopefully gleen the more useful reviews ... though funny stories sometimes help too.

periqueblend

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 17:39:43 -0800

Yelp like almost all 2.0 sites is a subliminal dating site. The "friending" of other reviewers whose snark or cutesy style you like, the need for people to try and infuse so much "personality" into their avatar... the nudity....All for reviews that seldom stray beyond 'loved it' or 'hated it'. A word of mouth review only works if I know whose mouth it's coming from. And I don't want to have to wade through all of your semi-literate opinions to realize that I don't care about yours.

meinWestAdd

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 17:27:12 -0800

I had high hopes for ylep, but almost never go there now, except to find out the hours a place is open, or their phone number. I find the reviews almost worthless now. You can find just about any opinion about any place. I mean, there are people who diss Blue Bottle on there. Crazy stuff.

dln

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 15:11:38 -0800

Yelp is fascinating in that it's successful even though it as a community is less than focused on its primary function - being a directory with reviews. Like myspace, it's more important that a review is funny, popular and make you look cool, rather than actually reviewing the place. Ok, that place got omgwtf23 laid, and weegirl was sooo drunk when she went there. Awesome. Now, how's their coffee? Also, it's not easy enough to discover new places based on location. Those are my main gripes with yelp. That said, it's not like there's any real competition for finding new places. :)

Jeremy

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 14:09:58 -0800

My favorite thing about Yelp is the slick Google maps integration, particularly when searching. When you zoom in or drag the map around, it automatically regenerates your search for the area displayed. And then the map "follows" you as you scroll down the page to look at the results. Top notch.

jas

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 14:05:12 -0800

I don't like yelp for one reason - the first place I ever looked up, out of curiosity, was a coffee shop around the corner from me on Masonic that I was pretty disappointed with after my first visit. Yet almost all the Yelp reviews gave the place glowing praise. So I went back, several times, to see if I was just in a bad mood that first day - but the coffee was still crappy, and the service was still rude and slow, and the place still had all the ambiance of a college basement rec room. So what gives? Either I'm out of the loop on coffee shops or 90% of the Yelp reviews of this place are total crap. Given the amount of coffee I drink and the number of espresso machines I've worked behind, I think it's the latter.

bluecanary

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 14:01:16 -0800

I love Yelp. It's led me to all kinds of off-the-beaten-track places I'd have never found on my own (or would even know to look for).

Claire Cochran

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 13:47:30 -0800

I have been an avid yelper since 2005, and continue to post reviews today. I am often surprised and delighted by how often people utilize the site. What started out as a past-time for me (love writing, am lame professional grinder), has turned into a great hobbie with benefits. Although sometimes I find the site "antics" and talkboards a bit juvenile, overall I think that Yelp rules. Thanks for the shout out!

J

Mon, 02 Apr 2007 13:36:09 -0800

Yelp.com has replaced the old phone book/Yellow Pages. While you can read a review by a newspaper columnist, that is a sample size of just one. Not that I was enthralled by my past statistics courses in college, but it makes sense that if I can get a sampling of 30 folks, I will have a better estimate of a service/business than I can get from just one. I just hope they can make the $$$$ to grow and prosper.