11 ms·
It's hard to make money as a directory service with Google and Apple Maps around. The shadier they get, the bigger of a sign it is that they're in trouble finan
by MentallyRetired 7y ago
It's hard to make money as a directory service with Google and Apple Maps around. The shadier they get, the bigger of a sign it is that they're in trouble financially, I would think.
- wodenokoto 7y agoThey are the directory service for apple maps, at least where I live
- whatshisface 7y agoMaybe Apple will pressure them to be less shady then.
- nacs 7y agoThey'll likely just completely replace them with an in-house solution. Yelp in Apple Maps is probably just a temporary solution
- gamblor956 7y agocough antitrust violations are not a good thing to attempt when you're already under investigation for antitrust abuses in multiple jurisdictions.
- sib 7y agoAntitrust regulations would certainly not be achieving the goal of reducing customer harm if they were to _prevent_ Apple from delivering a better, less-slimy solution to replace Yelp.
- SllX 7y agoWould have happened by now if they were going to. Yelp was integrated into Apple Maps from day one and Siri before that. If anything, Yelp has gotten slimier since then.
- scarface74 7y agoTo quote Jobs about Dropbox - Yelp is a feature not a product.
- hyperbovine 7y agoSteve 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.
- lazerwalker 7y agoI 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.
- cevn 7y ago> tiny minimalist Dropbox competitor what is it? I'm lookin for alternatives
- notsofastbuddy 7y agoPerhaps Tarsnap
- throw7 7y agoI use syncthing.
- alpaca128 7y agoSame here. I used to run a local Nextcloud server, but Syncthing is simply so much easier for what I need. And adding a "server" that's constantly switched on is as simple as installing it on one more machine.
- intopieces 7y agoApple Maps uses Yelp for restaurant listings.
- jedberg 7y agoI've tried using Google to find places to eat, but Yelp's search is just so much easier. If I'm in a new place, I just pull up Yelp, click "Restaurants" and go with the first thing that has food I like. It's never failed me yet. It might not be the best or cheapest around, but usually the thing with 4+ stars is still pretty good. We've found a couple of places that way where we keep going back every time we're in town just because we liked it so much. When I pull up Google and search for [restaurants near me] or [restaurants] in the Maps app, it's a mess. I can't tell what is good or not. Also they usually only have a few ratings. With Yelp I can find places with 100+ ratings out in the middle of nowhere. The problem for Yelp is that there is no money in providing a great service like that, so they have to do shady things to make up for it.
- ljm 7y agoFor that precise reason I don’t use Yelp (or similar) at all. I love serendipitous discovery and my favourite places wouldn’t win any such popularity contest (and I’m thankful they don’t). I believe that this quantification of all aspects our world leeches much of the enjoyment and discovery from it, so I prefer not to participate.
- acjohnson55 7y agoSome of my favorite restaurants no longer exist because they weren't discovered. So I'd just caution that that feeling of having one's personal list of hidden gems may not align with the interests of the people that run those places.
- asdff 7y agoGoogle maps also likes to hide results unless you are zooming in/out/researching the area constantly. Just show me everything in town, the full picture. I don't care if I have to wait seconds longer.
- thanhhaimai 7y agoAre you perhaps in the Bay Area? Yelp has a very strong presence in the Bay Area. However, when I travel to the EU and outside of California, I notice that the quality/quantity of reviews from Yelp vs Google is reversed. People advised me to find restaurants using Google Maps instead. Restaurants owners also put up sign asking to be rated on Google.
- neilv 7y ago> The shadier they get, the bigger of a sign it is that they're in trouble financially, I would think. Has Yelp's position on the perceived shadiness scale changed in the last several years? There've been allegations of extortion, defamation, and rigging, that entire time. I don't know that allegations of faking phone numbers is any worse, only less familiar.
- Skunkleton 7y agoApple maps relies on Yelp for review information.
- dkonofalski 7y agoWhich is really stupid because you have to download the app to actually read any of the reviews. Google, at least, displays the reviews right in the listing.
- ghostpepper 7y agoI wish Apple Maps would stop using Yelp as its review service.