On April 24, 2009, Darin McClure sent me a link to an article about YELP. The title of the article was “Yelp Allows Business Owners to Talk Back On Site”. I read the article that day and I really thought it should be a subject for a blog post, but until today I have not had time to talk about it here. The more research I did about YELP, the more I realized I didn’t know or understand a lot about this particular social networking site. Is your business listed on YELP?
I would like your input. Maybe you can answer some of my questions:
- Do you have a personal YELP account?
- Do you often write business reviews on YELP?
- Do you rely on the YELP reviews?
- Can you explain how the “search” program works in the back end?
Regarding #4: If I go to YELP and search for Mexican Restaurant in the specific zip code of 85705, then how can there be 160 results with the first result listed located in the zip code 85719? There is no rhyme or reason to the listings, they are not in alphabetical order, review frequency order, etc. Or am I missing something?
Now if I do the same search on Google Maps there are many more results, but they are listed in zip code relevancy order. In other words, Google lists first those restaurants actually located in 85705. Makes sense to me.
I hope that someone out there in YELP land can explain this phenomena to me.
