Yelp Walks Away From Google Deal, And Half A Billion Dollars • Hacker News Board

Re: Yelp Walks Away From Google Deal, And Half A Billion Dollars

#21

Post by sounddust » Mon, Dec 21, 2009, 11:32 AM UTC

leej wrote: post #17

yelp may be onto something but i think they dont realize that goog can kill them by applying a "mapquest".

Sure, but it's also important to realize that Google Maps was a rare success in a string of mostly failed projects/acquisitions (Orkut, Knol, Picasa, Google Video, etc).. I'd argue that Google's biggest successes were in areas in which the previous leaders failed to innovate for years (Mapquest, Hotmail), whereas Yelp is a very active company in a constant state of improvement/innovation. If I were Yelp, I'd be more concerned about Google doing something which would cause it to lose placement in search results.

Re: Yelp Walks Away From Google Deal, And Half A Billion Dollars

#22

Post by abijlani » Mon, Dec 21, 2009, 11:38 AM UTC

Yelp is not doing anything revolutionary. Before Yelp there was city search. Yelp came along and improved on what city search had done. Who is to say a better Yelp won't come along. I think they will regret walking away from this deal in the near future. For a very recent example look at Friendster. Although I hope I'm wrong.

Re: Yelp Walks Away From Google Deal, And Half A Billion Dollars

#23

Post by axod » Mon, Dec 21, 2009, 12:12 PM UTC

dagw wrote: post #20

axod wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Call me carazzzy, but word of mouth??

Word of mouth really only works if you live there, not so much if you're just passing through. And the time you really need a site like yelp is for all those times you're just passing through place and want to know who will do you a good pizza.

OK, I guess I misunderstood the use case. Seems like a niche to me.

Re: Yelp Walks Away From Google Deal, And Half A Billion Dollars

#24

Post by palish » Mon, Dec 21, 2009, 12:18 PM UTC

How old is Jeremy Stoppelman?

Re: Yelp Walks Away From Google Deal, And Half A Billion Dollars

#25

Post by axod » Mon, Dec 21, 2009, 12:19 PM UTC

sounddust wrote: post #21

leej wrote: post #17

yelp may be onto something but i think they dont realize that goog can kill them by applying a "mapquest".

Sure, but it's also important to realize that Google Maps was a rare success in a string of mostly failed projects/acquisitions (Orkut, Knol, Picasa, Google Video, etc).. I'd argue that Google's biggest successes were in areas in which the previous leaders failed to innovate for years (Mapquest, Hotmail), whereas Yelp is a very active company in a constant state of improvement/innovation. If I were Yelp, I'd be more…

Yelp also seem to have some slightly questionable business practices. Google could win just by not being quite so evil as yelp.

Re: Yelp Walks Away From Google Deal, And Half A Billion Dollars

#26

Post by rubyrescue » Mon, Dec 21, 2009, 12:53 PM UTC

sounddust wrote: post #21

leej wrote: post #17

yelp may be onto something but i think they dont realize that goog can kill them by applying a "mapquest".

Sure, but it's also important to realize that Google Maps was a rare success in a string of mostly failed projects/acquisitions (Orkut, Knol, Picasa, Google Video, etc).. I'd argue that Google's biggest successes were in areas in which the previous leaders failed to innovate for years (Mapquest, Hotmail), whereas Yelp is a very active company in a constant state of improvement/innovation. If I were Yelp, I'd be more…

Yelp is, from my observations, anything but active. They haven't innovated in terms of UI or features in probably two years. Even geographies have been slow to develop - UK took a long time to appear.

In fact, they're oddly static - the number of reviewed restaurants and stores has increased quite slowly for most cities, they haven't done a good job pushing into smaller markets.

Admittedly this is my anecdotal observation but i've been following yelp pretty closely since they launched and honestly up until the Google acquisition attempt, i was wondering if they were short on cash because they seem to spend so little energy on product/design/site and there seemed to be a bit of desperation in the whole 'yelpscam.com' accusations, which appear to be legitimate.

Re: Yelp Walks Away From Google Deal, And Half A Billion Dollars

#27

Post by joubert » Mon, Dec 21, 2009, 1:01 PM UTC

defen wrote: post #12

zackattack wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would you recommend in NYC instead of Yelp?

nymag.com is pretty good.

Seconded. NY Mag is far more in the know, and current.

Re: Yelp Walks Away From Google Deal, And Half A Billion Dollars

#28

Post by joubert » Mon, Dec 21, 2009, 1:01 PM UTC

dagw wrote: post #20

axod wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Call me carazzzy, but word of mouth??

Word of mouth really only works if you live there, not so much if you're just passing through. And the time you really need a site like yelp is for all those times you're just passing through place and want to know who will do you a good pizza.

Then try TimeOut?

Re: Yelp Walks Away From Google Deal, And Half A Billion Dollars

#29

Post by ThinkWriteMute » Mon, Dec 21, 2009, 1:08 PM UTC

Why is it when Google enters the picture into anything many geeks turn into tinfoil hat homeless people?

"The googles! It's coming for your body!"

Re: Yelp Walks Away From Google Deal, And Half A Billion Dollars

#30

Post by ojbyrne » Mon, Dec 21, 2009, 1:15 PM UTC

So the story here is ... Techcrunch published a story about an acquisition that turned out to have no basis in fact. TMZ seems like a more reliable source for gossip.