Comments on: Yelping for local business http://gigaom.com/2004/10/14/yelping-for-local-business/ Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:45:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Damian http://gigaom.com/2004/10/14/yelping-for-local-business/#comment-98353 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2004/10/14/yelping-for-local-business/#comment-98353 Silly Valley rides again: I’ll be the downer here – Yelp is too much of a me-too product in a crowded category for a start-up – it’s just going to require too much marketing to get above the noise of the other social networking companies, and they won’t have the money or the uniqueness to help them out.

All of this is really starting to feel like 1998-99 where people put together plans around marketing concepts rather than around great products. Yelp, at the end of the day, is a solution in search of a problem. How often do I need references or have the time to plug in references? How many times am I going to give up my friend’s emails before they start getting annoyed? Getting silly again….

]]> By: Om http://gigaom.com/2004/10/14/yelping-for-local-business/#comment-98354 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2004/10/14/yelping-for-local-business/#comment-98354 hey damian … good points. Silly valley… or as they say web 1.0 looking for web 2.0 redemption.

]]> By: bevonovo http://gigaom.com/2004/10/14/yelping-for-local-business/#comment-98355 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2004/10/14/yelping-for-local-business/#comment-98355 yelp’s got it wrong. they ask the user to search for something by sending out e-mails to friends. that’s quaint. as if your friends live in the same neighborhood. unlikely. they ought to go to the businesses, valustar-style, and make them pay to get listed and let the businesses push customers to sign onto the system to provide service/product ratings. that’s the secret, the businesses have the incentive to get rated: it’s part of building a base. after the transaction customers will not be bothered. zagats knows this.

there’s another site, build on a slightly different model, called i-neighbors.com (i’m not associated) that offers this service but in the context of the neighborhood.

]]> By: Dragos http://gigaom.com/2004/10/14/yelping-for-local-business/#comment-98356 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2004/10/14/yelping-for-local-business/#comment-98356 Besides i-neighbor there’s also judysbook.com which seems to be some sort of Linkedin for products and service recommendations within friends or the community. I think both Judy’s book and i-neighbor exploit a niche with a model better than Yelp’s. (I am associated with none of them either)

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