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Yelp craters 30% as advertisers abandon the site

cnbc.com

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Re: Yelp craters 30% as advertisers abandon the site

#251

Post by wutbrodo »

thanatropism wrote: post #206
Scoundreller wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So now that reddit’s Death has begun, what’s our alternative?

Old Reddit died with the Ellen Pao fracas. New Reddit is doing well; the new web UI is still weird for people with an Old Reddit background, but on mobile you don't confuse it with the website you loved in 2008-11 -- yet it's pretty good at what it does: entertainment for the broader public.

Old reddit died well before Pao. I still get value out of Reddit, but you just have to use it in a different way now, like any community that blows up and goes mainstream.

Re: Yelp craters 30% as advertisers abandon the site

#253

Post by wutbrodo »

stcredzero wrote: post #104
ChuckMcM wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't disagree, what I wonder about is how management sees this as a better alternative than serving their customers. I expect it is a "damned if you do damned if you don't" type situation. They are at a tremendous disadvantage as a 'web' experience because you're getting there through Google, Facebook, or Bing rather than landing directly on their page so they have already paid that platform to put you in front. T…

So at some point I presume the go full "Yellow Pages" and just charge venues a monthly fee to appear at all in their pages. That works if they are generating significant foot traffic into the venue but fails if they can't connect the app/website use with the visit. I think it's useful at this point to ask why various directories had value during their heyday. The "Yellow Pages" had value, simply because there wasn't…

> Google might be able to create a such directory based solely on traffic and AI identification of the type of business? Could AI identify long lines outside of restaurants?

Google already does plenty of stuff like this, and has for years (including historical and live busyness). Hell, I haven't used Yelp in years, because their app is generally less usable, isn't integrated with Maps (for directions etc), and cripples mobile web by not letting you see most of the content. Though it's possible that the data for G Maps is only comparably rich because of my location, and that Yelp has a data advantage in many more markets.

Re: Yelp craters 30% as advertisers abandon the site

#254

Post by replies_to_all »

a_wild_dandan wrote: post #236
Scoundreller wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a matter of time before they acquire the top app or two and block the rest.

Guess it's a matter of time before I stop using Reddit then. I already ran to Relay as an escape from Reddit's astonishingly garbage mobile browser experience. Next stop is the door.

Reddit's great idea was giving users full power over individual subreddits. I'm taking the good and building a Reddit-like site for sharing media links. My first attempt is just audio books doing doing one for music and movies too. (HN hates me and won't let me post a link).

Re: Yelp craters 30% as advertisers abandon the site

#255

Post by stcredzero »

ubercore wrote: post #232
stcredzero wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen that part of the Google listing, which is part of the reason why I made the suggestion. Google shouldn't just go by raw traffic, however. Traffic means different things at different times to different kinds of venues. High traffic at the DMV doesn't mean it's an awesome place. A line of 20 people means one thing to a sit down restaurant and something very different to a Boba tea place. I suspect that AI app…

Right but if you're talking about restaurants, where people want to be (rather than the DMV where they have to be), I don't see why busyness isn't essentially the same as looking at lines outside.

A line of 20 outside a sit down restaurant that isn't even open means one thing if it's 30 minutes before it opens, another if it's already open. A line of 10 in front of a Boba tea place means something very different than a line of 10 in front of a sit down restaurant.

Busyness wouldn't just be used as a measure of busyness. It could be used as a proxy for other qualities. Another example: There are restaurants that have ample waiting areas and others that have none. Those in the waiting area wouldn't necessarily mean the same thing to a customer's experience than the same people seated at a table. Likewise for people standing outside vs. waiting inside.

At a very basic level, throughput (Little's Law) should also be taken into account.

My point is there would be value in such proxy measures, if some AI were used for interpretation.

Re: Yelp craters 30% as advertisers abandon the site

#256

Post by tacomonstrous »

kibwen wrote: post #249
dragonwriter wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Let's also call out Venmo and Google Pay (nee Google Wallet) in this hall of shame, both of which removed the ability to send and receive funds from their website (both mobile and desktop) in favor of strongarming you into installing the app to do so (get bent if you don't have a smartphone, I guess?). Er, just checked and the Google Pay Send and Request money feature is accessible from both mobile and desktop site…

I'm simply citing this email from Google themselves that I received in July, telling me that "To keep sending or requesting money, you’ll need to use the Google Pay app." This was within a month of receiving an email from Venmo telling me that "Venmo is phasing out some of the functionality on the Venmo.com website over the coming months. We are beginning to remove the ability to pay and charge someone on Venmo.com.…

You're probably thinking of the email sent when they switched money-transfer features from Wallet to Pay.

Re: Yelp craters 30% as advertisers abandon the site

#257

Post by bredren »

vikingcaffiene wrote: post #210

Good. Yelp is utter trash. They've shaken down several friends of mine who own and run restaurants. Either you pay for their premium services or a bunch of 1 star reviews start magically appearing on your business Its a well known racket and they should be run out of town on a rail for it. On a more personal note, they also refused to adequately protect my wife when we encountered and reported an unscrupulous vendor…

They raised too much money, had a down round and have been on the ropes for some time. This is what happens.

Re: Yelp craters 30% as advertisers abandon the site

#258

Post by oh-kumudo »

Well, you don't really have to have distinguished insights to tell that Yelp is doing a horrible job as an advertising company. Their ads are unattractive and annoying. What is fundamentally wrong with their business model is that, good restaurants don't need ads to wow customers: they are already oversubscribed, only troubled ones do.

Re: Yelp craters 30% as advertisers abandon the site

#260

Post by dunpeal »

timr wrote: post #224
cblades wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Working on the systems in a technical capacity doesn't necessarily inform you of how those systems were used.

I worked directly on the code that would have done the things you're asserting to be true. There's no code to support it, and in fact, there are tools in place to prevent what you're claiming. If there were some top-secret internal conspiracy to use the other tools on the site to do what you're claiming, you have to be especially credulous to believe that I -- or people just like me -- wouldn't have noticed it. Unles…

The typical criticism of Yelp was that you could get negative reviews of your business removed if you paid them.

I'm not sure how as a coder you'd be able to guarantee that's never been done, except if your code guaranteed that no review could ever be removed by a human moderator, which I'm sure is not the case.

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