I Get By With A Little Yelp From My Friends

What do you do when you're in an unfamiliar place and need something to eat?  Pick at random? Go to a fast food place or other big chain, so that you at least know what you're getting even if it isn't very good? Or try to talk to the locals and find someplace interesting and hopefully amazing?

I often research before I go, but sometimes things happen at the spur of the moment.  So, I usually use online reviews, mainly Yelp.  I've been using them for almost five years.  I started when I needed to find places to eat in the middle of barren Indiana.  I go to Wisconsin a lot, from Ohio, and I can find places on both ends and in Chicago.  But what the heck is in Indiana?  I tried Urbanspoon, Yahoo, etc., but their coverage was sparse.  Yelp had not just more reviews, and but more in-depth reviews.

After a few months I decided to pay back by reviewing places I went, and I've never stopped.  Yelp has helped me find great places, and I hope I've helped others find more.  The community is generally friendly and helpful.  It's really just an extension of "word of mouth"- even if you don't know anyone local, you can learn what they think about a place.  Hey, if I have a good or bad experience at a place, I'm going to tell people- in person or online.  If you, as a business owner, have a problem with that, maybe you need to spend your energy fixing your place rather than complaining about a bad review.

Yes, Yelp has seen some controversy, about review fraud (from both Yelp and businesses) and Yelp pushing businesses to advertise.  There have been lawsuits, generally dismissed, and I've never seen any pushiness or harassment.  If a business gets bad reviews, they probably deserve it and need to work on things.  If they get great ones, they deserve them too.  In either case the public needs to know about them.  And if you actually read the reviews, you can tell pretty quickly when one is overly fawning or unfairly negative.   Read and learn, and decide for yourself.  I would much rather read a hundred reviews and decide based on a ton of information than have no idea what a place is like.  Is picking at random good for consumers?  Or even businesses?  If you have a great product, don't you want the free advertising that word of mouth and its modern equivalents bring? And sometimes things change over time, so a good review in the local paper from five years ago will mislead you into thinking a place is still great, or vice-versa.

Some people hate Yelp, and online reviews in general.  I don't get that.  I love reading reviews in the local paper, but they can't hope to visit all the restaurants in town, or try every single item on the menu.  It's not like movie reviews, with a relatively limited number of releases that are the same across the country.  One benefit of crowdsourcing is that there are so many people "working" to find information.  With the food industry in particular there are always places popping up, and closing, so you can never keep up.  But online reviews come close.  Some people think crowdsourcing takes advantage of people, who are doing work for free.  But if they want to do it, or don't think of it as work, what is the issue?  Does it bother you that Facebook makes money off your birthday posts and cat pictures?  That Twitter makes money from your comments about TV shows?  How are you being hurt?

I have found so many cool places- restaurants, museums, parks- with the help of Yelp.  And as you can tell I like writing, so I also enjoy contributing my observations and sharing cool places with others.  I don't understand the hate for Yelp, and online reviews in general.  More information is better.  The good and bad need to be heard.

I am in Yelp's hometown of San Francisco right now, enjoying music and I am sure some good local food.  The pic below is actually from Columbus, Ohio, but something Asian will probably be in the mix in SF.  And maybe seafood?  Sourdough?  I'll find something good to eat, with any means at my disposal...