5 ms·

Yelp has been horrible since day one. If google has or has not abused its position Yelp is not the standard we would use to determine that.

camillomiller 8y ago
This makes no sense. Yelp could be the worst company ever created, but if they had market share and Google worked to seize that market with unfair practices, that counts as abuse of dominant position. There is a dangerous conflation of two very distinct categories in your line of thought.
- Mirioron 8y ago
  The problem comes with the fact that it's possible to game algorithms. We have examples where a poor service or website becomes (remains) popular, because they're good at gaming the system. Eg Pinterest. Or in the case of the example they brought up in the video, where they counted the number of reviews you could game that system by just creating fake reviews or trying to just get more of them through non-organic ways.
  - dazc 8y ago
    'Eg Pinterest' A classic example of a business that Google should be using their dominance against, but aren't.
    - madads 8y ago
      In a roundabout way Google are more like Pinterest than you think. Both utilising other people’s content. All just glorified databases with different UI really. Yelp kind of has original content in people’s opinion of db entries. YouTube however is slightly different since people post short and long form video on which is mostly original. Interesting.
      - dazc 8y ago
        'In a roundabout way Google are more like Pinterest than you think. Both utilising other people’s content.' True, which makes me wonder why Google don't just add a bit of Pinterest-style functionality and then start applying search quality guidelines against Pinterest? I know there are copyright issues but I expect Google would do a better job of linking to the original source - something Pinterest seem unable to do at all?
        deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
- obelix_ 8y ago
  If think the point being made is Amazon didn't suffer the same fate as Yelp wrt to book reviews because Amazon had a better product than whatever Google produced.
  - notyourday 8y ago
    You mean Amazon actually has a product. Until yelp started doing deliveries, order now and cashback its product was a content farm. I know a few people in the restaurant industry (owners/managers). They all say the same thing: at best engaging yelp ( and advertising on yelp ) is a non-negative. It does not bring enough new customers to justify its expense.
    - mjcl 8y ago
      The best yelp engagement I saw worked with customers directly: a property manager ran a raffle for half off a months rent. To enter, you just had to leave a review on yelp. They didn’t explicitly ask for good reviews, but the majority were pretty positive. For about the same amount that yelp wanted for sponsorship, they got over 30 real, quality reviews that complimented the recent improvements that had been made.
  - jacksmith21006 8y ago
    Exactly. Do a product search and Amazon one of the top links even though Amazon banned any company on their market place from being allowed to sell several Google products and even hijacked people looking. Yelp sucks so not a top link. Seems to be working in a fair manner.
- MikkoFinell 8y ago
  > seize that market with unfair practices Please describe what you consider a fair practice to seize a market in general terms.
- bobdole1234 8y ago
  Google spent billions to develop the huge data processing systems and algorithms to eventually leave Yelp behind, like a freight train leaves a horse behind. Yelp missed the industrialization of their industry by machine. Knowing what you're doing isn't monopolistic.
pwinnski 8y ago
The enemy of my enemy is... still horrible.

camillomiller 8y ago

This makes no sense. Yelp could be the worst company ever created, but if they had market share and Google worked to seize that market with unfair practices, that counts as abuse of dominant position. There is a dangerous conflation of two very distinct categories in your line of thought.

Mirioron 8y ago
The problem comes with the fact that it's possible to game algorithms. We have examples where a poor service or website becomes (remains) popular, because they're good at gaming the system. Eg Pinterest. Or in the case of the example they brought up in the video, where they counted the number of reviews you could game that system by just creating fake reviews or trying to just get more of them through non-organic ways.
- dazc 8y ago
  'Eg Pinterest' A classic example of a business that Google should be using their dominance against, but aren't.
  - madads 8y ago
    In a roundabout way Google are more like Pinterest than you think. Both utilising other people’s content. All just glorified databases with different UI really. Yelp kind of has original content in people’s opinion of db entries. YouTube however is slightly different since people post short and long form video on which is mostly original. Interesting.
    - dazc 8y ago
      'In a roundabout way Google are more like Pinterest than you think. Both utilising other people’s content.' True, which makes me wonder why Google don't just add a bit of Pinterest-style functionality and then start applying search quality guidelines against Pinterest? I know there are copyright issues but I expect Google would do a better job of linking to the original source - something Pinterest seem unable to do at all?
      - deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
obelix_ 8y ago
If think the point being made is Amazon didn't suffer the same fate as Yelp wrt to book reviews because Amazon had a better product than whatever Google produced.
- notyourday 8y ago
  You mean Amazon actually has a product. Until yelp started doing deliveries, order now and cashback its product was a content farm. I know a few people in the restaurant industry (owners/managers). They all say the same thing: at best engaging yelp ( and advertising on yelp ) is a non-negative. It does not bring enough new customers to justify its expense.
  - mjcl 8y ago
    The best yelp engagement I saw worked with customers directly: a property manager ran a raffle for half off a months rent. To enter, you just had to leave a review on yelp. They didn’t explicitly ask for good reviews, but the majority were pretty positive. For about the same amount that yelp wanted for sponsorship, they got over 30 real, quality reviews that complimented the recent improvements that had been made.
- jacksmith21006 8y ago
  Exactly. Do a product search and Amazon one of the top links even though Amazon banned any company on their market place from being allowed to sell several Google products and even hijacked people looking. Yelp sucks so not a top link. Seems to be working in a fair manner.
MikkoFinell 8y ago
> seize that market with unfair practices Please describe what you consider a fair practice to seize a market in general terms.
bobdole1234 8y ago
Google spent billions to develop the huge data processing systems and algorithms to eventually leave Yelp behind, like a freight train leaves a horse behind. Yelp missed the industrialization of their industry by machine. Knowing what you're doing isn't monopolistic.

pwinnski 8y ago

The enemy of my enemy is... still horrible.