2008 Woodie Awards
YELP reviews local businesses
Welcom Ang
Issue date: 3/13/08 Section: Features
If you've ever used Facebook, Myspace, Craigslist, or Ratemyprofesssors.com, you might be interested in adding Yelp.com to your list of sites to visit.
Yelp.com is a social networking and user review site that covers thousands of businesses all over the country but localized by city.
Reviewers rate business on a 1-5 star scale, and users can search reviews by rating, geographic location, type of business and even by reviewer.
Yelp was created by former Paypal employees Jeremy Stoppelman and Russel Simmons in 2004.
It's a great website because it removes the trouble of visiting a place, paying for services, and not liking what you paid for.
It's a great way to find out store hours, what sort of crowd the place brings in, if it's a good place to apply for employment, and myriad other tidbits of rumor or information that is all potentially helpful.
My only complaint is a tiny one: for the sake of one's reviews being considered "funny," "cool" or "useful," some reviewers tend to go snarky.
Yelp is a review site like Ratemyprofessors.com, which a lot of college students use. But Yelp also combines the networking aspect of, say, Facebook.
It allows reviewers to create detailed profiles and become better known through their reviews.
The company sometimes holds "Yelp events" where reviewers can meet each other. "Elite" status is awarded to members who are recognized by the Yelp community (through emailed recommendations) for writing quality reviews.
Being funny, writing a lot of useful information, insider tips or personal experiences and writing "fairly and with accountability" scores high with the folks at Yelp. You, too, can be elite!
Yelp, like Craigslist, covers hundreds of cities all over the U.S. It's a clean, fun inspiring, easy-to-navigate website.
Although Yelp is more utilized in metropolitans like San Francisco and New York, the Sacramento section is growing and full of useful reviews.
San Franciscans often review Sacramento businesses, and there is nothing to prevent Sacramento reviewers from writing about businesses they've come across in other towns.
So in this way, Yelp helps break down regional boundaries, which has the potential benefit of increasing business all over the U.S. through positive reviews.
The great thing about Yelp is that the more that businesses become aware of their customers' opinions and needs, the better their service or product can become.
The only thing that worries me is the tyranny of the majority. If the customer is always right, and everybody gets what they want, what's to prevent Massage Envy from being forced to start serving lattes?
Common sense, that's what, and so far there's no short supply of it on Yelp.
Yelp.com is a social networking and user review site that covers thousands of businesses all over the country but localized by city.
Reviewers rate business on a 1-5 star scale, and users can search reviews by rating, geographic location, type of business and even by reviewer.
Yelp was created by former Paypal employees Jeremy Stoppelman and Russel Simmons in 2004.
It's a great website because it removes the trouble of visiting a place, paying for services, and not liking what you paid for.
It's a great way to find out store hours, what sort of crowd the place brings in, if it's a good place to apply for employment, and myriad other tidbits of rumor or information that is all potentially helpful.
My only complaint is a tiny one: for the sake of one's reviews being considered "funny," "cool" or "useful," some reviewers tend to go snarky.
Yelp is a review site like Ratemyprofessors.com, which a lot of college students use. But Yelp also combines the networking aspect of, say, Facebook.
It allows reviewers to create detailed profiles and become better known through their reviews.
The company sometimes holds "Yelp events" where reviewers can meet each other. "Elite" status is awarded to members who are recognized by the Yelp community (through emailed recommendations) for writing quality reviews.
Being funny, writing a lot of useful information, insider tips or personal experiences and writing "fairly and with accountability" scores high with the folks at Yelp. You, too, can be elite!
Yelp, like Craigslist, covers hundreds of cities all over the U.S. It's a clean, fun inspiring, easy-to-navigate website.
Although Yelp is more utilized in metropolitans like San Francisco and New York, the Sacramento section is growing and full of useful reviews.
San Franciscans often review Sacramento businesses, and there is nothing to prevent Sacramento reviewers from writing about businesses they've come across in other towns.
So in this way, Yelp helps break down regional boundaries, which has the potential benefit of increasing business all over the U.S. through positive reviews.
The great thing about Yelp is that the more that businesses become aware of their customers' opinions and needs, the better their service or product can become.
The only thing that worries me is the tyranny of the majority. If the customer is always right, and everybody gets what they want, what's to prevent Massage Envy from being forced to start serving lattes?
Common sense, that's what, and so far there's no short supply of it on Yelp.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 3
Marc
posted 3/17/08 @ 9:44 AM PST
Your readers might want to try www.Measuredup.com a leading customer service review website where people share reviews with other users and with companies. (Continued…)
Wow
posted 3/18/08 @ 3:43 PM PST
Wow Welcome Ang. This Story is completely plagiarized from another college newspaper. You should feel stupid.
To the connection editors: you should do a better job of looking out for plagiarists. (Continued…)
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