Don’t get mad, just Yelp!

Thinking about using that plumber? Looking for some good sushi but have no one to ask? Yelp will help! Yelp is an urban city guide that gives people access to a wide range of local business. From pizza to plumber, Yelp has it covered by locals in the know, giving honest opinions.

January 15, 2008, by itsnearme

How many times have you taken your car to the mechanic for $20 oil change, and ended up paying hundreds? If you only knew before how bad this mechanic is you would have never gone there. This is the situation where you probably think to yourself – I want to warn people to stay clear of this business, and fall into the same trap. Yelp lets you do both. It is a local-city service that lets users search and read other people’s reviews of local businesses.

Yelp’s search tool is easy to use - enter business name, category of business (restaurant, sushi etc.) or address with a zip code and Yelp will display, in a clean and easy to read Google map with red markers representing the search results and ratings with a corresponding description list on the left, all the businesses. Users are able to display the results by highest rated, number of times reviewed or best match. Results can be narrowed by category, neighborhood, attribute (delivery, sit down, good for kids etc.) and price range.

Yelp makes out-of-towners feel local. When tourists arrive at touristy cities, like New York, they can get local information provided by locals. Locals know their city best, and Yelp gives access to their opinions.

Users using Yelp should keep in mind that opinions are personal and can not always be trusted and sometimes businesses critique themselves, other times, users take revenge on business by trashing them. Yelp’s popularity and large user base, and the fact it relays only on user generated content, results in a quite accurate and trustworthy view. This brings us back to the cheating mechanic, if I were happy with them, I would probably write a complimentary review, but if I did not get good service or was ripped off, I can warn other people.

  How to use this service

1. goto www.yelp.com
2. type your search criteria - name or category (sushi)
3. narrow search by using left bar options (rating, price range, neighborhood)