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Yelp craters 30% as advertisers abandon the site

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361–370 of 464 posts

Re: Yelp craters 30% as advertisers abandon the site

#361

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I dearly hope my bank raises a flag if I decide to choose a language other than English on the ATM. I’ve only chosen it 9134 times in a row.

Just FYI, this is controlled by the ATM itself and your language choice isn’t stored nor passed onto your bank.

I'm not sure if this has changed, but I remember a Chase(?) ATM asking me if I wanted to save the setting.

Maybe it's not a thing anymore?

Re: Yelp craters 30% as advertisers abandon the site

#362
post #357
post #182

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I think one of the most interesting/telling user experience things in the industry today is why people feel so strongly about not installing apps. It seems like it spans most people, from novice users all the way to technology experts. Personally, I've never understood it, since nearly every mobile website is terrible. I prefer installing the app. Seems like a key problem for mobile OS vendors to solve. If you don't…

Apps don't support multiple tabs. I'm rarely looking at 1 restaurant at a time, I'm trying to compare 5, or 6 or 10. The Yelp app has no means of doing that. Also, I can't easily select some text in the app, like the name of a dish I'm not familiar with, and quickly trigger a web search in another tab to do some quick side reading. I have the Yelp app installed, but 9 times out of 10 the browser is how I prefer to us…

Kudos. You just made a case for why the browser-based web is so great, and how much more room there is for improvement.

Yeah, you're right. Yelp sucks. But ya have to believe, in time, someone will put the user first and get the experience correct.

Re: Yelp craters 30% as advertisers abandon the site

#363

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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.

https://reddit.com/.compact

https://i.reddit.com

Re: Yelp craters 30% as advertisers abandon the site

#364
post #263
post #219

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I'm not the person you're replying to, but here goes: It's not 2011 anymore, back when the mobile web was trash because companies maintained both a desktop site and a severly gimped "m.desktop.com" site. Back then you pretty much had to have apps if you wanted to capture the mobile market. Today, we have mature Add to Home Screen capability, GPS support, push notifications, widespread support for CSS3 hardware accele…

you can add push notification from mobile web? I suppose i see the attempts for me to enable desktop notifications but ive never seen them on mobile web before. Feels weird to applaud add to home screen but not want the app. Also im on wifi so often that i guess 50mb to download an app is a non issue for me. I am biased because I build native apps vs web apps but ive always preferred a rich native experience and desi…

No push notifications is an added bonus. I do not want notifications. None. Zero.

Re: Yelp craters 30% as advertisers abandon the site

#367
post #194

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I couldn't agree more. Hopefully this is a wakeup call to Yelp and other slimy sites that try to extort users into downloading their app. Also, small pro-tip for anyone unaware. If you are on mobile web and on Yelp, but don't want to download the app, hold down the refresh button, and select 'Request Desktop Site' - this will load the non mobile version of the site that will not force you to download the app. The UI…

This may be an unpopular opinion, but is Yelp really being slimy by pushing users to download their app? Seems to me it's more that they are being too cheap/lazy to properly maintain both a mobile app and a mobile site. Certainly not behavior that benefits their users, but I feel slimy implies that they are doing something dishonest.

Yelp cares a lot about app installs because web traffic is fragile. When Google ranking changes their traffic immediately changes, which is not desirable for building a stable buisness.

Re: Yelp craters 30% as advertisers abandon the site

#368

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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…

This is related to what you are saying, but I think the main reason is that the app has better user retention (push notifications, icon on your home screen). Also they get location data.

I worked at Yelp 2 years ago and can say that the main reason is definitely because web traffic is not reliable, it changes with Google ranking changes. And Google and Yelp are not good friends. They are super concerned with not dying if they stop showing up in Google.

Re: Yelp craters 30% as advertisers abandon the site

#369
post #9

I don't have any sympathy for a site that purposely cripples the web mobile site to force you to install their app. They lock you out of pictures after around 20 so you have to go to desktop or install their crappy app. Yelp will not be missed.

Just to give some balance to the echo chamber here, I would miss Yelp. I never try to use the mobile site, so I've never felt that pain. Most people I know are in the same boat. It's pretty silly to suggest that nobody would miss Yelp.

Re: Yelp craters 30% as advertisers abandon the site

#370

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Reddit keeps asking me if I want to download their app or Open in Safari... regardless of which browser I’m using. Not every iOS user is using Safari!!!!

Don't you want to view it in the official Reddit app for the best experience ? No, no I don't. And the official reddit app is not the best experience.

Trying to annoy me into shaping my behavior into what you want means you 'win': I'll stop talking to you your web server entirely, and screw your app.

There is no site (other than my own) so unique that I can't find a replacement.

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