Yelp Is Replacing Restaurants’ Phone Numbers So Grubhub Can Take a Cut

Post by Kique » Tue, Aug 06, 2019, 4:54 PM UTC

ilikehurdles wrote: post #85

Kique wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The company I work for advertises pretty heavily on Yelp for our 150 locations, and the main perk isn't better ratings but having your bad reviews hidden behind a different sorting system. If you go on any Yelp business page today you will see that it isn't sorted by Date, it's sorted by "Yelp Sort". So if my business doesn't advertise on Yelp then maybe bad reviews will be on the first page of a Yelp Sorted ranking.…

From my experience, the reviews filtered out are often reviews by folks with small or no networks. I saw my wife's reviews filtered out when she first had an account, before she added friends or connected the account to facebook (not sure which one did it, this was years and years ago). I'm not saying this is a good system, just my observation of one factor.

Post by couchand » Tue, Aug 06, 2019, 4:56 PM UTC

la_barba wrote: post #118

oliveshell wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one is arguing that Yelp shouldn’t be allowed to funnel customers to their app. We’re just condemning the choice as shitty and user-hostile.

I suppose if the app provided a better experience, then it wouldn't be user-hostile.

Post by intopieces » Tue, Aug 06, 2019, 4:58 PM UTC

MentallyRetired wrote: post #15

It's hard to make money as a directory service with Google and Apple Maps around. The shadier they get, the bigger of a sign it is that they're in trouble financially, I would think.

Post by cj » Tue, Aug 06, 2019, 4:59 PM UTC

lazerwalker wrote: post #101

hyperbovine wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steve Jobs FTW yet again. I thought he was wrong about Dropbox for the longest time. But their latest attempts at "productizing" their service (Adobe / Zoom / Slack / Atlassian / Google Docs / Office integrations, "social" features, etc. etc.) have convinced me that simple file sync, which is all I ever wanted from them, is not enough to sustain a company. Meanwhile the shareholder-induced march downwards continues.

I wouldn't necessarily frame that as an inevitability of Dropbox as a product, as much as an inevitability of the traditional VC funding model. It's likely you could build a very healthy business selling people file syncing — I personally use a tiny minimalist Dropbox competitor that seems to be doing just fine. The hypergrowth demanded by investors when you take on $1.7B in funding is what's the challenge.

Post by mikeash » Tue, Aug 06, 2019, 4:59 PM UTC

nrmitchi wrote: post #140

troydavis wrote: post #133

Developers who have been asked to implement a UX dark pattern like this one (or Yelp’s decision to forcibly open the App Store without warning in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20625852 ), did you implement it? Why or why not? I can’t imagine a case where I would be skilled enough to obtain employment at Yelp, and thus at other companies too, and yet would agree to implement something particularly slimy instead…

While I haven't implemented anything like this, and have pushed back when I've seen dark patterns like this before, it's not hard to imagine a situation where someone would feel like they have to. It's a fairly privileged position to be able to just up and quit. Even in the bay area where you can in theory get another job fairly quickly, not everyone has enough savings to bridge a gap, and health insurance I'm sure c…