Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think this is why TripAdvisor is better, in my experience, for restaurants than Yelp. If I'm not mistaken, TripAdvisor makes most of its money off of hotel booking referrals.
Foursquare is my secret weapon whenever I need to impress with restaurant selection.
Angie's List Acquired for $500M by IAC
51–60 of 129 posts
Re: Angie's List Acquired for $500M by IAC
#52Re: Angie's List Acquired for $500M by IAC
#53Not specifically apropos of the buyout, but my experience with Angie's List has been similar to that of Yelp, that is, businesses that paid to advertise on AL were better able to maintain high rankings. The top-rated companies were not the best from either a quality or price perspective. While it's a great idea to crowd-source referrals for contractors like that, it's unfortunate that that model falls prey to the sam…
I think this is why TripAdvisor is better, in my experience, for restaurants than Yelp. If I'm not mistaken, TripAdvisor makes most of its money off of hotel booking referrals.
Their sales tactics are borderline abusive, too. They will hunt you down forever until you sign a package with them, and they give you zero time to think about whether their ad package (which only works on their site and has a super high CPC compared to AdWords) is right for your business.
They need to go away
Re: Angie's List Acquired for $500M by IAC
#54Not specifically apropos of the buyout, but my experience with Angie's List has been similar to that of Yelp, that is, businesses that paid to advertise on AL were better able to maintain high rankings. The top-rated companies were not the best from either a quality or price perspective. While it's a great idea to crowd-source referrals for contractors like that, it's unfortunate that that model falls prey to the sam…
I think this is why TripAdvisor is better, in my experience, for restaurants than Yelp. If I'm not mistaken, TripAdvisor makes most of its money off of hotel booking referrals.
Yelp is weird because when it's good, the reviews are great and super insightful. But you don't necessarily get a great picture of the area. (My typical use case I showing up in randomtown, USA for 24-48 hours.)
Re: Angie's List Acquired for $500M by IAC
#55unusual purchase by iac. they've always focussed on dating apps.
Re: Angie's List Acquired for $500M by IAC
#56Re: Angie's List Acquired for $500M by IAC
#57Re: Angie's List Acquired for $500M by IAC
#58Not specifically apropos of the buyout, but my experience with Angie's List has been similar to that of Yelp, that is, businesses that paid to advertise on AL were better able to maintain high rankings. The top-rated companies were not the best from either a quality or price perspective. While it's a great idea to crowd-source referrals for contractors like that, it's unfortunate that that model falls prey to the sam…
The solution is classification instead of ranking.
I am more interested in a Mediterranean place that cooks falafel to order and has tahini sauce than I am in a 4-star Mediterranean restaurant.
Conveniently those are all verifiable facts, so there's no need to wrestle with subjectivity.
Re: Angie's List Acquired for $500M by IAC
#59Not specifically apropos of the buyout, but my experience with Angie's List has been similar to that of Yelp, that is, businesses that paid to advertise on AL were better able to maintain high rankings. The top-rated companies were not the best from either a quality or price perspective. While it's a great idea to crowd-source referrals for contractors like that, it's unfortunate that that model falls prey to the sam…
This will always be true for any subjective rating system, i.e. stars, upvotes, etc. The solution is classification instead of ranking. I am more interested in a Mediterranean place that cooks falafel to order and has tahini sauce than I am in a 4-star Mediterranean restaurant. Conveniently those are all verifiable facts, so there's no need to wrestle with subjectivity.
You preferences aren't the mean or the median, I suspect.
Re: Angie's List Acquired for $500M by IAC
#60unusual purchase by iac. they've always focussed on dating apps.
HomeAdvisor, which this purchase would presumably fall under, is another major group that includes HomeAdvisor as well as a bunch of other brands. They've made two other purchases for this group so far this year: HomeStars (Canada) and MyBuilder (UK). As well MyHammer (Germany) in October last year.