I’ve been very restrained when it comes to saying this or that product launch is a fill-in-the-blank “killer.” I generally don’t believe in that sort of hyperbole, nor does it often turn out to be the case in actuality. However . . .
I now believe that the combination of things that Google is doing in local — and with mobile in particular — makes Google a much bigger threat to Yelp than it has been in the past. I think it’s less true on the PC side however.
The addition of a friend layer to local through Hotpot — and it remains to be seen whether Hotpot takes off — combined with Google’s revamped Places app and overall integration (especially on Android) with Maps and directions make Google an increasingly formidable player in local-mobile.
Yelp has a very strong and trusted brand. However the mobile experience on Yelp can sometimes be a bit cumbersome. You can also only start/draft reviews in mobile. But the era of the long narrative review, which helped differentiate Yelp from competitors and which makes it such a rich content source, may be declining. Facebook Like data and star ratings with tips that help produce ranked lists may begin to take over.
What people on the go mostly want (unless they’re looking in a high consideration category) is a quick and trusted way to make decisions about where to eat and what to do. Yelp has lots of tools to aid local search and discovery in mobile and for the most part Google doesn’t match those. But Google’s local-mobile assets are quickly becoming very good.
There’s enormous “gravitational force” building around Google with all the things it’s doing on the handset. It also totally “owns” Android. Unless they’re fantastic I think that over time there will be fewer and fewer local apps that can compete with Google on the Android platform. It has much less of a grip on the iPhone by comparison.
What do you think? Do you think Yelp will be able to hold its own or eventually be overwhelmed by Google as it devotes more attention and resources to local?
November 16th, 2010 at 3:09 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Greg Sterling, Best Of Professional. Best Of Professional said: @bestofpros Google Places, Hotspot Now Putting More Pressure on Yelp: The addition of a… http://tinyurl.com/2a49zzx For Small Business [...]
November 16th, 2010 at 3:23 pm
This is a smart move by Google. And well executed.
November 16th, 2010 at 8:10 pm
Yelp’s community is ultimately the most unique and valuable part of the company. The content itself (as is the case with most time-stamped information) is in a constant state of decay. I think that Yelp will continue to thrive so long as they remain focused on what made successful to date.
November 18th, 2010 at 6:01 pm
Google may be going “local”, but they are doing it globally. Not only will they compete with Yelp, but they will be doing the same thing with Yell in England, and with every other such product in every other country. It may take them some time, but I predict this may become a fast growing employment sector for them. globally.
December 17th, 2010 at 8:37 am
Hi Greg. Great posts, this and your one on the launch of Hotpot. I’ve been asking basically the same question as you do here, but not just about Yelp’s ability to survive in the face of Google. It seems to me Yelp has the power of Facebook’s social graph behind it, which makes it socially far stronger than Google. The short-form review – e.g. Facebook Likes and perhaps even Foursquare tips, may become a popular alternative to Yelp-style reviews (though I prefer the richness of Yelp, plus they have star ratings so compete there anyway). But the elephant in the room is Google’s continued search for a social solution. It already has a powerful proposition in Maps on mobile devices and Google Me (or whatever that turns out to be) could turn it into a social giant too. But crucially, the friend layer will be a differentiator, IMHO. We both seem to have had the same idea here: http://bit.ly/friendlayer
December 17th, 2010 at 1:05 pm
It’s not yet clear that Google will be able to do the “friend layer” with success of course. They want Facebook’s content but Facebook won’t let them have it.
December 17th, 2010 at 4:57 pm
I’ve come to the conclusion that a friends layer is not mandatory for Google (or Bing). If you believe as I do that recommendations from “people like me” (ie with my tastes and interests) are more powerful than recommendations from “friends” then Google has an easier problem to solve. Instead of trying to encourage Google Account users to friend each other (ie encourage social engagement, an area where Google has had limited success), they can instead do what they do best: use clever algorithms to crawl user ratings and reviews and correlate them to each other to find, for each user, “users like me”. The big challenge here would be to disambiguate users and items (books, movies, products, restaurants, stores, etc.) across distinct review sites. That’s a problem Google can really sink their teeth into. And the data is readily available to them. If I were them, I’d focus on that. Friends are good for sharing personal news, funny links and photos. People like me are better than friends for recommendations. Bottom line, the social in social search should translate primarily to “people like me” not “people that like me.” This is great news for Google if you believe that the next wave of commercial search will invert the current search process and searching people first, web pages second.
December 17th, 2010 at 5:19 pm
Malcolm:
There are others who agree with you “people like me” is ultimately a better source than “people who like me.” And I agree that Google could create a compelling recommendations product through algorithms.
January 13th, 2011 at 10:03 am
[...] from “people like me” gleaned through the integration of my and others opinions, and mobile and search data could create the first real recommendation engine for local businesses. If Google (or Yelp) can [...]
May 27th, 2011 at 1:31 pm
[...] told Yelp that Places (especially on Android) is a threat to the company in mobile because it’s a good product and so well integrated into search and Google Maps. Yelp’s [...]