There is absolutely no skill pre-requisite to write for Yelp! – a simple review site I use mostly for restaurant reviews. That’s why I like to read business reviews there- it’s somewhat raw and unprofessional, two qualities that I like to foster in my own scribbling endeavors. It’s a system not without fault, but if you take it with a pinch of snuff, it’s thoroughly entertaining.
There are extortion allegations that business owners who fail to advertise and have their good consumer reviews mysteriously confiscated. I have a few businesses on Yelp! and although I sometimes get a call from the mob asking if I need fire insurance, I mean asking if I want to pay to advertise on the service, I’ve never had anything disappear.
The other flaw which is easy to see past is that of bogus posters – you always see canny entrepreneurs’ new businesses receiving many five star reviews from members who are new to the site, and don’t feel compelled to comment on anything else. Odd that. There is a system to address this in place, and I always ignore reviews that seem too retarded, unless they’re funny.
And then there are Yelp! staff who get paid to run around reviewing things. Big deal. If someone wanted to pay me to eat and gush, I’d do it. Heck, send me an invite to dine gratis at your restaurant and I’ll be happy to tell the world what I think of it. Can’t promise it will be flattering though – I have a tendency to bite the hand that feeds me. Especially if it’s a hand dipped in minty dark chocolate with sprinkles for fingernails.
Compare this to Google’s Places. My real estate business is right there – feel free to give it a star rating and you’ll see what I mean. It’s facile. Any muppet with a google account can give you a rating with no real system or community to moderate reviews. I tell you what. You give me a 5 star review on google right now, and I’ll see how long it takes me to get it removed. I dare you.
Of course, the cynical side of me will complain that I’m providing free content for Yelp! to sell advertising, and to that I reply to myself, “Yes but they give me an audience.” Now that I write that on the page, I realize how weak my reply is. So I come back with, “But didn’t you have fun in Portland navigating by Yelp! reviews and the odd personal recommendation, and didn’t you enjoy complaining that you had the worst cocktails of your life in that one ‘bar’?” Maybe.
Also I use it to complain about places. Being fairly English, I don’t like to complain to the wait-staff about issues. I’d rather let a building resentment cloud my judgment for a few days and then tell the world how unfair it is in an outpouring of bile. Or I can write a review to explain that I was going to Red Lobster, ahem, ironically.
There’s a community aspect with Yelp! though I don’t really explore that beyond linking up my facebook friends with myself on Yelp! so that I can at least see whose reviews I may more easily trust. And there are fora, chats, badges and all that nonsense that I file under the category of “flair” and don’t take too seriously.
For now, I’ll keep writing reviews here and there. Clicky the profile or check out the stats on the left which shows my activities to date. There’s something liberating about writing for free. Sometimes.