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Google In Talks To Buy Yelp
There have been many rumors floating around concerning a possible buyout of Yelp by Google, but it appears that at least a few details have escaped, painting this as a much more serious possibility. Pointing the needle to something north of $500 million, the acquisition would mean a substantial step into localized business for Google. "Google has been showing greater interest in the local business market in the United States. It has expanded its profile pages for local businesses, which include location and hours, maps and reviews from other Web sites. In June, Google gave local businesses the ability to manage what people see on their profile pages, similar to what Yelp does. Google has been reaching out to local businesses with simpler ways to advertise on the search engine. It is also distributing stickers that businesses post in their windows and passers-by can scan with cellphones to get coupons or information about the business. The deal between Google and Yelp could still unravel, one person said, particularly if another acquirer comes forward now that details have leaked."
...to have progress, the people of earth will have to start owning the search and everything else that Google is into nowadays. Today most people probably think Google is doing a good job (and I'm not saying they aren't), but Google will become a middle man that we'd be better off without. The surfers should be in control of the means of searching. I hope the transition will go smoothly and painlessly.
Some of my favourite people are from th US; Vonnegut, Chomsky, Bill Hicks.
Or, what am I missing? Is yelp.com offering something other than people subjectively reviewing things like food?
Yes. It's offering a social networking site for such people as well as a user-generated database of information about the restaurants (and other businesses) in their neighborhoods. It's like facebook meets wikipedia for food and drink nerds. It's incredibly useful in a large city where new restaurants and bars come and go constantly, and where there is a large mobile population of internet-savvy people with disposable income. People post photos and the reviews range from entirely vapid to densely informative. It's an opportunity for every wannabe food critic to write about what they love (or hate) and actually get readers without having to go pro ... (It's especially useful in a city like LA where print food journalism is already dominated by a single writer!) You can learn a lot about places that you would never get from a menu or the website or a newspaper review. It's not just restaurants, either -- bars, auto mechanics, bowling alleys, doctors, strip clubs, medical marijuana "dispensaries," and universities all have extensive pages of reviews. And you can network with writers you think are helpful or entertaining. Some networks organize parties and group dining events. It's great for travelers too -- I really like to eat out at izakayas (Japanese "tapas" pubs), for example; whenever I travel anywhere in the US that has some Japanese population, I always check yelp to find such places and read their reviews. I don't know if google owning yelp will be good or bad - I kind of like it the way it is now, though I could see its potential to be much cooler. Either way, though, people who use it regularly see a lot of value in it and I'm guessing that google sees a lot of value in those networks of generally young, educated hipsters with enough money to go out to eat all the time and enough free time to spend generating content (for free).
Or, what am I missing?
Why don't you put your money where your mouth is, Mr. Smartypants, and take a couple of months to clone Yelp and find out. Better yet, take four months and make a site that is twice as good! If it's so easy, then do it. Half a billion dollars for four months of work! What are you waiting for?
I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
500 million for a very simple website that has people reviewing restaurants and shit? Half the people on Slashdot would be able to clone that website in a couple of months (working alone!), and the user base is *not* worth half a billion (BILLION!!!).
What is this world coming to?
Or, what am I missing? Is yelp.com offering something other than people subjectively reviewing things like food?
Yelp is the first place I go to when I want to find a new place to eat...it is extremely useful in a big city where there is no way that any other site or publication has reviewed all of the eateries. The tech behind Yelp isn't revolutionary, but it's a pretty slick site to use. more importantly, it basically owns the market for local reviews. Saying that a couple people could clone the site is like saying a couple people could come up with a Gatorade-like drink over the weekend...the response to which would be...So?
They wouldn't close it down, just like they didn't close down Youtube when they bought it out. Even though they have a competing business (Google Video) - its still all under the same roof generating profits for Google.
Yelp would still run, Google would just be running it, gaining all of their revenue.
Until I see a clear motive for Google doing this, It all just seems a little underhanded.
Its clearly not to acquire their technology or products, they can find a far cheaper solution (500 million is alot of bucks). The only thing remaining that I see is the user-base, and taking over competition.
anti-competitive maybe, but if you think this is just about copying code, you're missing the point. When yuppies in NY, Chicago, LA, SF, NOLA, Vegas, and other cities in the U.S. get home from a great (or terrible) meal (or strip club or trip to the gynecologist), many of them want to "yelp" their experiences. They don't say "I am going to run home and google map the shit out of this place!" Reviews on google maps are useful but they are not really part of a social network; they are far more anonymous and disposable than yelp reviews. You don't "favorite" authors, you don't upload photos of your food (or photos of yourself), and you don't join groups of other users for sushi or whatever in real live fleshmeets. Yelp has just done the "Web 2.0" experience a lot more elegantly than google in this area. I suspect google doesn't just want the user base but also their sense of connectedness to each other.
Yelp is not just code; it's an actual social network and it's a brand identity. I don't know if it's worth a half billion either -- those kind of numbers are meaningless to me since I don't buy and sell companies. But it's certainly something a hell of a lot more substantial than its codebase.
Isn't that what Google does when they buy other online services? Restructure it to integrate with their other online offerings?
Presumably, their dev team is already doing other things (and, in the real world, it would take more than a week.) If they buy Yelp, they:
1) Get a codebase and a team familiar with it that can improve it in directions Google directs,
2) Get Yelp's existing userbase,
3) Don't have to compete with Yelp with their own service.
Instead of reinventing the wheel, they just need to tweak and integrate.