Yelp, et al.

[RDOwens9]

The problem with Yelp and other review sites is there is no
standardized site. A few years ago Jarvis pumped DinnerBuzz. I began
using it. It went belly up. I then found Menuism. I used that for
some time until I clued in that few used the service.

This is where my blog stepped in. I now write my reviews on my site.
Sure, it is not aggregated on a specialized site, but if one searches
Google for the restaurant and review, he will come across my review.
Review sites would do well to aggregate blog posts and link to them on
their sites.

I am not beholden to someone else's business model for my reviews this
way. My review of your restaurant perseveres. Tagging the posts
properly means it will be found by those seeking. Content is not lost
when I control its location. This is why I host my blog on my domain.

[Colleen McD]

Being older than Clayton, I was unaware of Yelp.com until today. I
immediately tried it out and what really jumped out at it was the
mapping feature that showed how many restaurants I know are in my area
that aren't on the map. Now I have to go out and proselytize to the
businesses in my area to get with it and at least get in the game. Of
course, I personally won't be able to use it on the run because I use
a THROW AWAY phone without web capabilities...one of these days :)

[RDOwens9]

Clayton, you asked about standardization on today's podcast. My issue
with Yelp and all is let's suppose I was visiting NYC and wanted to
find a good restaurant. Where do I go to find that information?

Is Yelp better than Restaurantica? What about Menuism? There's Urban
Spoon. Which site is going to glean valuable information? Being
unfamiliar with the value of those sites, I am going to look to a
group with whom I have more trust. A local board somewhere with folks
who have recently visited/lived there, trusted friends, etc.

Without a "go to" group, restaurant review sites are non-standard.
There is no such group.

So, I post my reviews on my own site. Sure, that does not help
standardizing. It however, preserves my content. My DinnerBuzz
reviews are gone, lost forever. For those who are looking for more
depth, a blog post may be valuable.

For giggles, I just looked at these sites for a restaurant review for
Bobby Flay Steak in Atlantic City.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/bobby-flay-steak-atlantic-city
http://www.restaurantica.com/searchresults.aspx?dirty=false&query=bobby+flay+steak&loc=Atlantic+City%2C+New+Jersey&searchBtn=Search
http://www.menuism.com/search?q=bobby+flay+steak&l=atlantic+city%2C+nj&x=0&y=0
http://www.urbanspoon.com/s/53?q=bobby+flay
http://blog.rdowens.net/2008/07/14/bobby-flay-steak

Perhaps Yelp is the best of those. I don't feel, however, as I have a
good description of the experience after reading that page. YMMV.

[Clayton]

What about Twitter or Facebook as the place you go? I find that when
I travel to a new town sometimes the best responses I get a from
Twitter with a question "hey who knows where to eat lunch in Omaha,
NE?" I got some great responses with that message and found a great
local lunch spot. What do you think?

On Aug 31, 3:30 pm, RDOwens9 <rdowe...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Clayton, you asked about standardization on today's podcast.  My issue
> with Yelp and all is let's suppose I was visiting NYC and wanted to
> find a good restaurant.  Where do I go to find that information?
>
> Is Yelp better than Restaurantica?  What about Menuism?  There's Urban
> Spoon.  Which site is going to glean valuable information?  Being
> unfamiliar with the value of those sites, I am going to look to a
> group with whom I have more trust.  A local board somewhere with folks
> who have recently visited/lived there, trusted friends, etc.
>
> Without a "go to" group, restaurant review sites are non-standard.
> There is no such group.
>
> So, I post my reviews on my own site.  Sure, that does not help
> standardizing.  It however, preserves my content.  My DinnerBuzz
> reviews are gone, lost forever.  For those who are looking for more
> depth, a blog post may be valuable.
>
> For giggles, I just looked at these sites for a restaurant review for

> Bobby Flay Steak in Atlantic City.http://www.yelp.com/biz/bobby-flay-steak-atlantic-cityhttp://www.restaurantica.com/searchresults.aspx?dirty=false&query=bob...http://www.menuism.com/search?q=bobby+flay+steak&l=atlantic+city%2C+n...http://www.urbanspoon.com/s/53?q=bobby+flayhttp://blog.rdowens.net/2008/07/14/bobby-flay-steak

[Robert Owens]

On Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 7:49 AM, Clayton<clayton...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> What about Twitter or Facebook as the place you go?

That would be included in that trusted group. But you'll get a
recommendation, not necessarily a review. It would be difficult to
describe an experience in 140 characters. If you asked on Twitter,
wouldn't it be great to have someone give you an opinion and a link to
a detailed review?

[RDOwens9]

Clayton, just listened to today's podcast. I think it is very much an
aggregation of sources to get information for things like restaurants
and movies. For me, reading a movie review site is totally
unappealing. Either a trailer will catch my interest or someone will
comment about a movie that will catch my interest. Reading about some
upcoming movie is not where I spend my time.

When it comes to restaurants, I am willing to spend that time reading
reviews. Yelp lacks for me. To use the Bobby Flay Steak example,
there were 30-40 reviews. I browsed through them and most did not
relate pertinent information to me. Having an average rating is
useless to me as I have no idea as to the tastes of those who rated
the restaurant. Could the system be gamed by stacking the ratings
like Amazon has been? I'm sure. So while aggregating data is good in
one sense, it provides little help if it can't be trusted. Perhaps
there is no one-stop shopping that would satisfy me.

To each his own, but I don't see me engaging in Yelp any time soon.

It's been an interesting discussion.

[Lance's Grandmother]

I did download Yelp and look forward to using it in NYC in October.
Since I live in a very small town these apps don't help me because we
hear about any new place (not many) through the grapevine. I'll give
you an example of my town. When the original iphone was released I
was one of only 13 people who showed up to get one.

[TimJ]

I have about 3 applications on my Palm that I can use to find things
to do, places to eat, etc, but the best one is Where. http://www.where.com/
For GPS enabled phones, it is great..... It ties in Yelp, with other
applications to give you everything you think you need in one spot.
Should take a look at it.

Tim