201–210 of 461 posts
Yelp should obviously have just been upfront that they were going to be taking commissions, the fact that they weren't strikes me as symptomatic of a dysfunctional org (that failed to actually align on this decision but pushed it out anyway in a shady way).
Grubhub is taking the commission from the restaurant in this case.
They are the digital equivalent of "nice shop you got there, it's be a real shame if anyone broke the window, for just a small payment, we can protect you..."
As a potential user, considering how they actively "manage" the reviews, I simply do not trust them. I find far better information elsewhere.
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 will never forgive Dropbox for limiting free users to 3 linked devices, which promptly resulted in half the people I preached the gospel of Dropbox to ringing my phone and being pissed at ME.
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.
At one point he and his partner are getting excited that they are on the road to profitability in 6 months. One of their VCs gets upset by this saying that targeting profitability is a sure way to end up with a lifestyle business.
It feels as though much of tech has gone from helping people accomplish their goals efficiently to a business model of extracting rents while providing no or little value. In this example, what benefit is GrubHub providing to anyone? The person used Yelp solely to look up the phone number of a restaurant. GrubHub deserves 15% of his order for that? Why, because they made a deal to give X% of it to Yelp, and convinced…
It has become way more finance and marketing over time - if Google was "tech" (indexing algorithms) that evolved into more marketing (their advertising role) then social networks started fundamentally "half-marketing" by being social oriented as opposed to sophistication of number crunching. This isn't meant as a slight - some business domains are just fundamentally are more one than the other. But that still shapes the culture.
Symbolically Juicero and Raw Water merchants show the shift to the lack of vision and smarts in a drive for cash. This isn't new of course - pets.com wasn't that bright either technically nor in the business sense but they were at least trying to move retail onto the internet.
As for society - the term is rent seeking and ridding us of it entirely would be a major commitment and ironically unpopular.
Unfortunately Yelp does have some value if not concretely - their name and reputation. If you were to try to launch a "zelp" tommorow nobody would stop you but chances are nearly nobody would go there because nobody heard of it and there is no good user content.
It isn't quite classical rent-seeking as they are not enacting barriers and anyone could enter technically. The issue is size and how people use it. If the market share was split or anyone could enter the delivery market with no overhead their share would shrink.
It is a side effect of consumer useage - there is a strong winner takes most tendency with the resulting network effect in spite of the fact the barrier to entry being so low and people going with the path of least resistance.
I've found Google Maps review quality and quantity improved over the last few years so it's rare that I'd even open Yelp in recent months. With this, I'm deleting my Yelp app.
Google maps has definitely improved, but they are even worse than most review sites in the near worthlessness of their review scores. The vast majority of restaurants are rated between 4 and 5 stars, with the difference between a 4.1 and 4.6 being huge - the former being 50/50 that its good, the latter being the sort of place worth waiting in line for. The closest Michelin starred restaurant to me is rated 0.2 points…
Yelp is such a slimy company. First they wall off their mobile web reviews to try to force you to download their POS app, they have the whole extortion racket going trying to strongarm restaurants into paying for advertising, and now this. Friendly reminder - if you are on mobile and trying to read a Yelp review and don't want to download their app, simply hold refresh, click "request desktop site" and it will load t…
Apple are changing that feature in iOS13 to be a lot more obvious (menu where reader button is). And iPadOS13 (beta 4) defaults to Desktop Mode (might break lots of websites) although there is a setting to change it to default to Mobile Mode.
Android Chrome users have Desktop Mode checkbox under the hamburger menu.
Amazing. Yelp redirects the customer who intended to look up their number in Yelp, redirects them GrubHub. GrubHub then grifts the restaurant for it. These online order companies are grifters. With tricks and sneaky fees, they exploit the restaurants, they exploit the customers, and if delivery is involved, they'll exploit the driver too.
I had to install their app to get in line at a local restaurant. Immediately uninstalled. I don't see why people use Yelp other than the fact that they have a mindshare dominance on ratings. User generated/internet 2.0 style food ratings are basically useless anyway, add in all of the other shady stuff Yelp does and you have a hard pass from me.
Disclaimer: I worked on this feature. If you walk in to the restaurant, you don't need to install the app. The app will let you view your live place in line, but you can leave the line/get notified when your table is ready vis SMS. If you want to get in line before you show up the restaurant, you can do that via the app, or the www site, or the mobile site.
If you worked on it as the original NoWait, have you seen any changes, positive or negative, now that the feature is under Yelp's umbrella?
Yelp is such a slimy company. First they wall off their mobile web reviews to try to force you to download their POS app, they have the whole extortion racket going trying to strongarm restaurants into paying for advertising, and now this. Friendly reminder - if you are on mobile and trying to read a Yelp review and don't want to download their app, simply hold refresh, click "request desktop site" and it will load t…
> simply hold refresh, click "request desktop site" Apple are changing that feature in iOS13 to be a lot more obvious (menu where reader button is). And iPadOS13 (beta 4) defaults to Desktop Mode (might break lots of websites) although there is a setting to change it to default to Mobile Mode. Android Chrome users have Desktop Mode checkbox under the hamburger menu.